The Cubs’ astonishing run of injuries continues. Just one morning after manager Craig Counsell announced that a hamstring strain was sending righty Edward Cabrera to the injured list, Chicago has now placed Ben Brown on the 15-day IL due to a neck strain. The Cubs made both of those IL placements official via a press release. In a slate of corresponding moves, they’ve recalled right-hander Gavin Hollowell from Triple-A, selected the contract of veteran right-hander Vince Velasquez from Iowa (as already reported this morning) and designated righty Eduarniel Núñez for assignment. Chicago also appointed righty Tyler Ferguson as their 27th man for today’s doubleheader.
Brown and Cabrera join Matthew Boyd, Jameson Taillon, Cade Horton and Justin Steele as rotation options on Chicago’s injured list. Horton is out for the season, and Steele isn’t expected to return as a starter; president of baseball ops Jed Hoyer stated yesterday that if Steele returns at all, it’ll likely be as a reliever late in the year.
If there’s one silver lining, it’s that Boyd is expected to be activated to start tomorrow’s game, per Marquee’s Taylor McGregor. That’ll give Counsell a rotation mix including Boyd, Shota Imanaga, Colin Rea and Javier Assad.
Brown, 26, has been a savior for the Cubs amid their awful injury luck this season. He moved into the rotation in early May after a terrific six-week run in the bullpen and has rattled off eight starts with a 1.70 ERA. After making a pair of four-inning starts to begin that shift, Brown has pitched into the sixth inning in four his past five starts, completing six frames in three of them and topping out at seven innings. Along the way, he’s fanned a roughly average 22.5% of his opponents against a tidy 6.3% walk rate.
The Cubs haven’t provided a timetable for Brown’s potential return. His IL placement is retroactive to June 21, so it’s possibly he’ll “only” be sidelined another 12 days if the injury proves minor in nature, but that’s merely a best-case scenario and not based on anything the Cubs have stated to this point.
Hoyer suggested yesterday that he’s had conversations with teams throughout the league about adding some arms to offset the deluge of pitching injuries. However, he also cautioned that trades of any real note aren’t likely to happen until after the All-Star break. That’s not for lack of trying on Hoyer’s part, of course; one need only ask the president of baseball operations or general manager of any contending club how many motivated sellers are dangling notable trade candidates this time of year to be told there’s simply not much available in late June.
While Hoyer continues to try to bring in some arms from outside the organization, the Cubs will also need to make a determination as to how to proceed with Núñez, whom they claimed off waivers from the Orioles earlier this month. Núñez is a command-challenged righty reliever who’s had no problem missing bats. The Padres traded him to the A’s last summer as the clear fourth player in the Mason Miller blockbuster. He hasn’t found success in limited major league work, and his numbers in the minors have taken a step back this season.
Núñez has bounced between three different organizations this year. He’s totaled 19 2/3 minor league innings but struggled to a 6.41 ERA with a sky-high 19.6% walk rate. He’s also plunked two of the 102 batters he’s faced this season. Núñez has posted gaudy strikeout rates at times in the past, but he’s down to a good-not-great 25.5% this season and working with a 95.4 mph average fastball that’s down more than three miles per hour from his 98.8 mph peak.
The Cubs will have five days to trade Núñez, place him on outright waivers or release him. Waivers would take 48 hours, so his DFA will be resolved within a week.
