July 22: The Cubs today transferred Little to the 60-day injured list, per Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune on X. His roster spot goes to righty Julian Merryweather who has been reinstated from his own stint on the 60-day IL. Righty Hunter Bigge was optioned to make room for Merryweather on the active roster.
July 20: Cubs left-hander Luke Little was placed on the injured list with a left shoulder strain prior to the All-Star break last week, and today manager Craig Counsell told reporters (including Patrick Mooney of The Athletic) that the injury is “likely” to end the youngster’s season.
It’s a brutal development for the 23-year-old rookie, who has generally looked excellent since making his debut with the club back in September of last year. Chicago’s fourth-round pick from the 2020 draft, Little has posted a 2.76 ERA (158 ERA+) with a 3.61 FIP in 32 2/3 innings of work at the big league level to this point in his young career and has flashed the sort of high-end talent that could make him a potential high leverage arm for the Cubs in the future.
The hard throwing lefty averages more than 96mph on his fastball and has struck out a strong 28.8% of batters faced in the majors so far, but has to this point been held back by control issues. Little has walked an excessive 15.8% of opponents to this point in his career, including 16.5% this season. While his ability to avoid giving up homers (he’s allowed just one in his career to this point) has allowed him to post strong results in spite of that lack of control, his 4.29 xFIP and 4.19 SIERA both suggest that his current production isn’t entirely sustainable unless he can curtail his wildness.
Even with those potential red flags in his profile, the loss of Little is still a devastating blow for the Cubs. Chicago’s bullpen has been shaky all season due to injuries to their primary high-leverage duo of Adbert Alzolay and Julian Merryweather, which forced the likes of Hector Neris and Mark Leiter Jr. into more prominent roles. While strong performances from internal youngsters like Little and Porter Hodge as well as savvy external pickups like Tyson Miller and Jorge Lopez have helped to steady the Chicago relief corps’s production in recent weeks, only the Rockies and White Sox have blown more saves than the Cubs’ 18.
The news regarding Little figures to further tax a bullpen that also lost right-hander Hayden Wesneski to the 15-day injured list today, although Counsell told reporters (including Mooney) that the club believes that Wesneski’s forearm issue is not serious and that he’ll be back on the mound in Chicago fairly quickly. The righty has pitched crucial innings for the Cubs while swinging between the bullpen and the rotation this year and sports a 3.96 ERA (albeit with a lackluster 4.72 FIP) across 61 2/3 innings of work this season.
The continued stacking of bullpen injuries makes the relief corps an obvious place for improvement ahead of the trade deadline on July 30, but the Cubs haven’t made their plans for this deadline clear and entered today with a 47-53 record that places them dead last in the NL Central and 4.5 games out of an NL Wild Card spot. Should the Cubs opt to stand pat or even sell short-term assets such as Neris and veteran lefty Drew Smyly, the club will be left to hope that the likes of Merryweather and Alzolay can return healthy later this year and provide a boost while youngsters such as Hodge and Hunter Bigge step up to handle meaningful innings.
Disappointing
We’re cursed this year. It ain’t happening.
Anytime the Cubs disappoint, and with all that local hoopla back in October of 23 when they way overpaid a manager, they are in fact a disappointment, but to some, they’re never bad, they’re never disappointing. It’s always a curse. The Cubs are always good, great even, but when they don’t meet expectations, it’s because they’re cursed! Come on with that. Their record over the last 162 games? 130-132. They are mediocre. They are loaded with $$$ and play in a cash cow ballpark, set in a cash cow neighborhood, in a division full of small market teams, and they are simply mediocre. Somewhere in Florida today, Grandpa Rossy is sitting back while still collecting a paycheck from them, and laughing his f’ing ass off. And all over the city of Milwaukee, the Brewers fans answer to the question of who is Craig Cousel is … Craig who?
130+132=262 not 162. You are welcome.
You are right, Craig Counsell is highly overrated and not even close to being worth the money they gave him.
Lots of L’s and S’s in that headline. Sad for the player, happy for the alliteration possibilities.
On a positive note it’s not arm trouble.In fact almost all of the Cubs young pitcher injuries have been muscular in nature. Silver Lining maybe? Or bad training habits? Food for thought.
In what world is the shoulder not part of the arm?
There are much worse shoulder injuries than a Muscle strain. Labrum tear, Rotator cuff are possible career ender’s. Even Killian’s muscle tear was only a 60 day thing as he’s back pitching. Brown’s neck, Wicks oblique, Horton’s lat are all short term problems. So duh, your shoulder is part of your arm but a muscle strain is the least of a pitchers problems. Even Wesneski’s forearm strain isn’t bad until the MRI says he needs TJ.
Point to your shoulder…. Now point to your lat….
I was actually surprised to see that since June 27 the Cubs bullpen has been the best in the NL with a 1.14 ERA which is a full run better than the Braves who had a 2.20 ERA. You could have knocked me over with a feather. Miller and Lopez have been good pickups but should they be part of the future? Miller is certainly better now that he throws sidearm since his first tour here and he has spot on control. Lopez is only here because he had a meltdown but has been fine here. The Cubs have a lot of quality young arms so are these guys keepers or trade pieces? I guess we’ll find out. I guess I’d move them if I could but maybe once they could keep somebody who does well for more than a trade piece in a bad year.
They’re also at the top of the league in blown saves.That, as well as mediocre offense, has been their achilles heel this season. So many one run losses when they had the lead late… They’ve had a ton of injuries, but still… It all goes back to Hoyer not bringing in a serious closer.
I said relying on Alzolay was a mistake before the season and I’m sorry I was right. Alzolay should be the Plan B rather than Plan A. They chose to give Hendricks 16 million instead of signing one of the Closers and it bit them. They gave Counsell the worst bench probably in the history of baseball. So I’m not surprised the offense sucks.
Luke little, isn’t that a darts player:)
As opposed to Little Luke, the youngest kid from “The Real McCoys”. (yes, I’m that old)
Next up in the Cubs’ bullpen: Grandpappy Amos throwing to Pepino.
Looks like the Cubs need another lefty for the bullpen. What’s Felix Heredia or Will Ohman up to these days?
“entered today with a 47-53 record that places them dead last in the NL Central and 4.5 games out of an NL Wild Card spot”
This is not a “devastating blow” to the Cubs anymore than losing any other player off a last place team would be. They aren’t in contention and their season is already down the drain.