Article: Monday Morning North Sider: Beating the Brewers, Closer Shenanigans, Cade Horton, And More

[Brandon Glick]

The Cubs posted yet another winning record this week, going 4-3 against the Mets and Brewers. The team remains afloat, despite a swath of injuries and a revolving door of closer options in the ninth inning. Cade Horton also made his debut at Triple-A Iowa this weekend. All that and more in this week’s Monday Morning North Sider.

Image courtesy of © Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports

Welcome back all! Sorry for missing last week. NFL Draft coverage completely consumed me for the better part of a week, and then pre-production on my next film began… suffice to say, the life schedule hasn’t jived with the work schedule lately. We’re back now, though, and this week, I’ll be implementing some direct feedback I’ve gotten from a few of you: we’re going to treat this space as a casual week in review. Keep things entirely Cubs-focused, and leave the rest of the entertainment and sports discussion for the comments.

I have no idea if this will read better or worse than the old format, but it’s certainly worth a shot. So, without further ado, a Cubs-related rundown of the last week:

• Craig Counsell has done, in my estimation, a tremendous job as manager this year. He’s navigating a plague’s worth of injuries in both the lineup and the rotation, and a number of the team’s regulars have been downright ineffective. It’s a testament to his coaching prowess and intuition for the game that the Cubs lead the NL Central in wins as of May 6.

• However, he’s gotta get this ninth inning disaster sorted out ASAP. Adbert Alzolay has just completely lost his confidence, and can’t be used in any situation other than mop-up duty right now. Héctor Neris technically has gotten the job done, but he’s been playing with fire all season. Until and unless he can get the walks under control (and the strikeout rate up), he shouldn’t be pitching in such a high-leverage spot, either.

• Here’s a fun fact: Of the Cubs’ 14 losses so far this season, seven have been blown saves and/or walkoff losses. Yikes.

• At least the closer troubles have created opportunities for memorable moments. On Wednesday, the Cubs beat the Mets on a (highly questionable) play at the plate, thanks to some accurate throwing by Ian Happ and Nick Madrigal.

• As a fun side note, @Ethan Staple and I were at that game! We’ve posted a number of live videos about it here on North Side Baseball, which you can find under the videos tab on the homepage.

• As for who should take over the closer’s role… I have no idea. Mark Leiter Jr. has been the best reliever in the bullpen by far, but he’s so valuable in his role as a quasi-lefty specialist that it feels wrong to deploy him exclusively in the ninth inning. Keegan Thompson has looked good since returning from the minor leagues, but he still presents the team with multi-inning value as a former starter. Daniel Palencia, Yency Almonte and Luke Little all have the raw stuff to get the job done, but it’d be a stretch to trust such unproven youngsters with such an important role.

• For now, the Cubs will likely use a closer-by-committee approach, though Julian Merryweather will certainly get a chance at locking down the gig if and when he returns from injury. Ben Brown may also get a chance, if he’s pushed out of the rotation once Justin Steele is back.

• Speaking of Steele, it appears he AND Cody Bellinger AND Seiya Suzuki will be back as soon as this week. Thank goodness.

• The team has survived just fine in their stars’ absences, but man, will it be nice to add some credibility back to the middle of the lineup and the top of the rotation. We barely saw one start out of Steele before his hamstring gave out, while Suzuki and Bellinger were both catching fire at the plate when their respective injuries knocked them out.

• A lot of players have stepped up in their places. Mike Tauchman and Hayden Wesneski have been especially good over the last three weeks and change, but the Cubs will be demonstrably better with (arguably) their three best players back.

• Elsewhere on the roster, Patrick Wisdom, Christopher Morel and Nico Hoerner have been hot at the plate lately, and the team looks to have somewhat snapped out of its recent offensive funk. They've scored five or more runs in each of the past two games against the Brewers.

• Those two wins against the Brewers could be key later, especially considering neither Steele nor Shota Imanaga pitched in the series. The proverbial “back of the rotation” trio of Wesneski, Jameson Taillon and Javier Assad allowed zero runs and just nine hits in 18 1/3 innings of work this weekend. That’ll play.

• Lastly, Cade Horton made his first start at Triple-A Iowa this weekend. Our @Matthew Trueblood had a brilliant write up about the start, and Horton’s surprising similarities to the Cubs’ incumbent ace, Justin Steele.

• It probably won’t be too long before we see Horton in Chicago - I’d guess July or August, at the latest. He’s just been wholly dominant at every level at which he’s played since being drafted in 2022, and he could make the Cubs’ rotation a lot scarier if he comes up to the big leagues and continues on his path of destruction.

We’ll wrap it up there, folks. Let me know what you think about keeping things completely centered on the Cubs, as opposed to the wider breadth of topics we’ve had in the past. I’ll continue to experiment until we arrive at a formula everyone enjoys!

The Cubs play six games this week (scheduled off day on Thursday). They draw the Luis Arraez-equipped San Diego Padres for three games at Wrigley Field before heading to Pittsburgh to face the Pirates over the weekend. Both teams are below .500 at present, but both clubs (especially the Padres) have enough star power to make life difficult for a tired, injury-plagued Cubs team. Let’s hope for the best.

Have a great week, everyone! Go, Cubs, Go!

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[Derek_Lee_Truther]

I didn't mind the extra stuff in the old articles, but this is a quicker read now.