If Cubs Trust Neither Javier Assad Nor Jordan Wicks, How Can They Survive Their Pitching Crisis?

[Matthew Trueblood]

Image courtesy of © Jeff Curry-Imagn Images

Matthew Boyd can't come back too soon. The veteran lefty is on the rehab trail, and threw 63 pitches in four innings in a rehab start for Triple-A Iowa Sunday afternoon. He wasn't exceptionally effective, but the Cubs didn't need to see him dominate minor-league batters to know they want him back in their starting rotation. Boyd averaged 93 miles per hour on his fastball, and if his surgically repaired knee responds well over the first two days of this week, Boyd could certainly make his next start with the parent club over the weekend.

Edward Cabrera might not be far behind Boyd. Sidelined since May 20 by a blister, Cabrera should be back with the team in the first half of this month, though he won't even be eligible to return until the end of the week. Even before he landed on the IL, he was less effective and less impressive than he'd been at the beginning of the season, and the team will want to make sure the blister has time to fully resolve before reinstating him. At the same time, last week made it appallingly clear: the Cubs can't afford to wait any longer than is absolutely necessary.

In a 3-4 week against two division rivals, Chicago gave away two games by sending out starter Jordan Wicks to take Cabrera's turns in the rotation. They weren't expecting a miracle; they weren't expecting anything. The Cubs don't believe in Wicks, at this point, any more than you or I do—and I don't quite know about you, but I don't believe in Wicks at all. He's a pitcher whose ceiling was always low, and for whom an attempt to reengineer his mechanics and tap into more intense stuff only brought on a series of injuries that have dropped the floor out from under him. He could have a big-league future; he has no meaningful future with the Cubs.

Unfortunately, with Boyd (twice), Cabrera and Cade Horton already having been shelved this year, the team had few alternatives to giving Wicks another shot. They've already pulled Colin Rea and Ben Brown back from bullpen assignments into the rotation. Javier Assad got a shot, too, but he's been so unable to make his kitchen-sink magic work this spring that even when the Cubs could have recalled him to replace Cabrera on the roster, they elected not to do so. Assad is now eligible to return to the majors for non-injury reasons, but he might not be back any time soon, anyway; he's just gone backward as a pitcher.

Brown (with his lower arm angle and newfound sinker-heavy approach against righties) has taken wonderfully to the rotation. He, Shota Imanaga, Jameson Taillon and Rea look locked into the starting group for now, with Boyd likely to take the next turn that would otherwise go to Wicks. When Cabrera returns, Rea might get shoved back into the pen, rather than Brown, but that (perhaps too hopefully) assumes no one else is hurt and that Taillon and Imanaga are able to keep the ball in the park a bit better in the next couple of starts.

A fan in a summery mood could have sat down late in the winter and sketched a dream-like summer rotation for this team: Boyd, Horton, Cabrera, Imanaga, and Justin Steele all at their best, with Taillon, Rea, Brown and Assad as mere reinforcements. Instead, this team has no ace unless Brown proves this burst to be sustainable (which is unlikely), and very shaky depth. Suddenly but urgently, and at a rough time of year for it, they need pitching depth, badly.

Over the weekend, the Twins designated right-handed starter Simeon Woods Richardson for assignment. Richardson is young and relatively controllable. He has a fastball that can touch the mid-90s and a slider and a splitter that each flash above-average. However, he also has an 0-7 record and a 7.74 ERA this season, and he can't be optioned to the minors. Fixing him is probably a bigger project than the team can handle in the time and space provided.

Sunday saw the Pirates place righty Carmen Mlodzinski on the restricted list, after he (more or less) refused a reassignment to the bullpen. Mlodzinski is easy to underrate, but he's a six-pitch guy with a fastball that sits 95 and a 3.37 career ERA. If the Pirates are overflowing with starters (or, as is more accurate, just believe more in a couple of guys yet to prove as much as Mlodzinski has, in Bubba Chandler and Jared Jones), the Cubs could try to swoop in and take the disgruntled one they've displaced off their hands.

That would work much better, of course, were the Cubs and Pirates not both in the NL Central. In all likelihood, even if the Pirates do trade Mlodzinski, they'll ship him far from home, to some team in the American League. Besides, disgruntled or not, Mlodzinski has three-plus years of team control remaining and can probably slot fourth into most big-league rotations. The Cubs don't have whatever Pittsburgh would demand in return for Mlodzinski—or, if they do, they can't afford to trade it.

For the moment, the team is stuck. Whatever positive momentum they could have created this week was wasted by Wicks surrendering 11 runs while getting just 19 outs, leaving his team no chance to win in two of their seven games. Boyd might be able to slap a Band-Aid on this problem, but Jed Hoyer has been given his wakeup call. The Cubs need to make a move, and not in two months. They need help right now, or they can kiss their dreams of a first true division title since 2017 goodbye.

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[Andre and Ryno]

Javier Assad had two excellent starts this year, bookending one start where the Phillies lit him up.  His first inning in relief was 1-2-3.  Then he came into the middle of a game, and the Dodgers lit him up.  After that, he pitched seven innings of excellent relief across three outings.  Javier Assad outperforms his FIP, and that's not going to change.  He's had six excellent outings and two very bad ones.  He should have been the choice over Wicks.  I can't fault Wicks for the losses in his two starts, though, as the offense scored only one run in each game.  Hopefully Boyd or Cabrera is ready by the weekend.