Jason Ross

Not 80%, but the Braves have three of their projected SP's on the IL-60 right now. The Cubs only have two on IL-60, with two on IL-15 and one of those back soon. But yeah, I don't want to play it off as "The Cubs don't have a lot of injuries" just that a few other teams also have had a lot of injuries and it's not a training staff issue so much as an unfortunate bad happenstance (though should also be fair to mention the Cubs' staff has some injury concerns on paper and they've all seemingly come to fruition).

Fangraphs does have an injury section of their Roster Resource but I'm getting 500 Error when I load up roster resource right now. Not sure if it's a popup/adblock setting on my chrome or just down right now.

https://www.rotowire.com/baseball/article/most-injured-mlb-teams-ranked-by-severity-score-111870 The Cubs aren't even in the top-10 according to this metric. You can buy this specific one or not; that's really not the point. But there are 29 other teams and what the Cubs are going through isn't so special. They have faced a lot of injuries. Other teams have as well. This idea that it's the training staff is just searching for an answer to a question when the correct one is right in front of you, but you just don't like it because there isn't an easy scape goat.

Norway is cool.

He did have a neck strain last year.

Brave of you to assume any SP in this system would manage to be healthy for a week right now.

Didn't mean to suggest you were saying it's panic time, just in general, I don't think it's panic time. I think starting Will Sanders right now is probably panic-time move. But I do think getting Will Sanders MLB looks is probably better than finding the next Jayden Murray.

Probably a bullpen day, yes. To be fair, I think starting Will Sanders in Milwaukee is essentially waiving a white flag and throwing a bullpen day as is. Can't really expect him to go into Milwaukee against the NL Central division leaders and expect a good outcome. So I think regardless of what they do, when Cabrera's spot pops back up, it's probably going to be a long one. Maybe they'll rush job Matthew Boyd back, but I'd rather take an L in Milwaukee in June than rush him back. Let him build up...they need healthy SPs.

Not "Cubs" related but draft related: Just Baseball dropped their top-250: https://www.justbaseball.com/mlb-draft/2026-mlb-draft-top-250-prospects/#entry-225319

I think Sanders struggles too much to get into the zone right now for him to be a starting option. I'm with Bertz; I wouldn't mind getting him a look in the BP: give him some bulk low-leverage innings at the start and see how MLB hitters react. He's doing a really good job of getting Triple-A hitters to chase and whiff, but sits in-zone in the 10th percentile and when he's getting hit, he's getting hit hard. Triple-A hitters are just not anywhere near MLB hitters. Think about how good Ballesteros has looked time and time again in Iowa and how much he's struggled in the last month. I've read more than once on here that he's still the "best pure hitter" on the team or something along those lines from people here (for the record, I think maybe he can be that, but he isn't today). Sanders has probably done enough, coupled with the terrible Cubs' pitching injuries to force a look that way. But I think as a SP, MLB hitters are going to either use that low zone-% to their walk-advantage or force him into the zone too often and hit him hard. Shorter spurts make it easier to hide poor zone-rate. And low-leverage situations will allow the Cubs to see whether or not he can continue to get whiff and chase against far better and more seasoned hitters to offset the zone issues. I know we're frustrated right now, but the Cubs are above .500, in the playoff hunt and the Brewers are not an impossible number of games away (the Brewers were roughly this far back from the Cubs last year around the same point of the season, so it can happen). And to be fair to the Cubs only the Dodgers have gone 7-3 in the last 10. They aren't in "just start the kids" territory yet. But with injuries probably are in "well, might as well see what Will Sanders can do down 4 in the 7th inning" territory, too, rather than fill that spot with our 5th recently DFA"d 30 year old journeyman we pick up.

Justin Steele, Cade Horton, Daniel Palencia, all seem to fly in the face of this, no? Injury does not equal failed development. Especially when it comes to pitchers. And two things can be true. The Cubs haven't really gotten the best out of Cabrera but that they have developed some pitchers. Even if it probably isn't enough.

I'll ask Brock if it's in the podcast budget to hire a PI.

Cabrera has a strained hamstring/adductor. Quick google doctor suggests 6-8 weeks is probably a good timeline meaning...probably it for Cabrera this year as a starter.

Left side back tightness.

I don't think these two are related. A bruise on the thigh probably doesn't really have to do with this one.

I'm not sure that's just a hammy.

Cursed. Lol.

Pete now has a 149 wRC+ on the year. That asinine considering what he does defensively.

Man. Pete.

Hello all! @Mitch Widmeierand myself would like to add another section into the podcast where we can filter in any questions/topics from the forum. We've been taking questions on our Youtube live but want to make an easy place for you all to jump in here as well. Planning on jumping on live between Game 1 and Game 2 of the doubleheader tomorrow so if you have anything you'd want either of us to address, add to the pod, etc, just drop it here before Game 1 ends and we'll do our best! Candidly I've got my own game to get to at some point tomorrow night so we can't take everyone of them each week, but we do want you to be apart of it. We're hoping to make it as interactive as possible.

I'm not really sure either are real SS options. Rojas really doesn't give off "long term SS vibes". Yes athletic but not "fast" or quick twitch. And he's growing muscular. He's probably much more of a corner infielder or a 2b. Just not sure he's getting up the middle or to the hole well enough. As with Hoerner, ya know maybe you can squeeze a few years at SS from him. But I think it's important to note that his best plays take him closer to 1b not away from it, and in from 2b. He also has a pretty weak arm. I'm not sure he's going to slide over to SS so easily. Even as such, you still have Shaw and Ramirez ahead of him, so any opening at 2b that Nico would open up would still be given to those two before Rojas presumably. Not saying it's impossible, but there are some real obstacles to getting Rojas in the lineup on the infield. Think between the three he's got the best power upside to hang in LF but not sure it's good enough for me to say he has to be the guy of the there either.

Yeesh. That's a real bummer.

I've been waiting for someone to say that. I was thinking it.

Image courtesy of © Angelina Alcantar/ News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images Josiah Hartshorn has, for good reason, garnered many of the headlines around the Cubs farm system this year. He's the sexiest prospect of the moment for this team. He's the teenager already playing at High-A, and looking utterly dynamic. But he's still not the Cubs' top prospect. For now, that honor remains with Jefferson Rojas, who has had a very strong 2026 campaign in his own right. One reason we may be sleeping on Rojas is that the right-handed infielder wasn't good in his first action in Double-A last year. In his first 39 games in Tennessee (now Knoxville), the former IFA signing struggled to the tune of a 58 wRC+, swatting no home runs and posting just a .041 ISO. It's true that he was just 20 years old, and context should tell us that it's impressive any 20-year-old make it to Double-A, but it wasn't inspiring. Then, spring training happened. Sporting a more athletic frame, the non-roster invitee blasted four bombs in the leadup to the regular season. Now, we should always take a spring training performance with a grain of salt, but mechanical changes and young players sporting transformed bodies are things to note, and so far, Rojas has proven that his spring was a sign of things to come. Another reason people may be sleeping on Rojas; he got off to a bit of a rough start in 2026, despite the great spring performance. Through May 24, the shortstop had just a 95 wRC+—certainly an improvement over his sub-60 wRC+ last year, but not the start that we all dreamed on after March, either. Rojas only had four round-trippers and certainly looked better, but was still leaving something to be desired. A switch flipped on May 26 for the now-21 year old. He went 2-4 with a home run that day, and things seemed to fall into place. Over his last 24 games (107 PA), Rojas has absolutely turned it on. Hitting .383 while blasting seven bombs, Rojas has a sparkling 190 wRC+ over that span, enough to raise his season number to a 136 wRC+ on the year. With a strikeout rate of 18% and walking 9% of the time, he's kind of doing it all at the plate. Making consistent contact while hitting for power: it's impressive. All of this, however, leads us to one important question: Exactly where does Rojas fit into the Cubs' long-term plan? Currently, the Cubs are running a pretty crowded infield crew. With Dansby Swanson only mid-way through a seven-year pact, the Cubs went out over the winter and added Alex Bregman to the infield for the next five seasons. Then, they extended second baseman Nico Hoerner for another six years. This doesn't even factor in former top draft pick Matt Shaw (who's been pressed into outfield duty due to the overcrowding) or breakout prospect Pedro Ramírez. Even for a 21-year-old who probably has another year of marinating to do in the minors, that's a logjam. One possible solution is that Rojas could move positions, which is probably in the cards anyway. While an alright shortstop today, there's a good chance that Rojas will either outgrow the position or never be good enough to play it longer-term at the MLB level. Baseball America describes his defense as follows: "In the field, Rojas is an average shortstop defender. His footwork and hands leave something to be desired and he’s prone to poorly timed dives on extra-effort plays." They go on to point out that he's got a plus arm and could stick at shortstop, but he's got work to do. Instead, a plus arm and his athleticism would certainly allow you to dream of a potential third base, left field, or right field transition. The Cubs, likely blocked at second and third base for the balance of the decade, could see what Rojas's bat would do in the outfield. Prior to 2026, I'm not sure he'd ever showed the pop to feel confident about that transition, but a 136 wRC+ plays anywhere. Right now, rather than a guy who might hit 10 homers a year, he looks like someone who might hit 20 of them. The Cubs do have some outfield prospects in the system (the aforementioned Hartshorn, Kevin Alcántara, as well as 2025 first-round pick Ethan Conrad and second-round pick Kane Kepley, just to name a few), but the team is currently slated to lose both Ian Happ and Seiya Suzuki in free agency next year. It's a real pathway to cementing himself with the parent club some day. Beyond moving around chess pieces in order to find Rojas a home with the Cubs, Jed Hoyer has another option: trade his top prospect. While Shaw is looking pretty good in right field and Ramírez could conceivably handle left, the shortstop-to-corner-outfielder pipeline is not a common one, and it's probably not the best way to get a ton of slug into the lineup down the road. All three of them have a good amount of overlap in what they do—and because of that, there probably isn't a home for all three at the same time, either. It's unlikely that Rojas will be making any sort of impact in Chicago this year. If you're interested in a mid-year trade, Rojas is the best combination of being able to bring back a haul and not costing you much in the short term. Obviously, Rojas is too good to be sent in a deadline deal for a rental. Twenty-one-year-old infielders who might stick at shortstop with a 136 wRC+ in Double-A don't grow on trees, What he would be able to do, however, is to play a starring role in a trade for a controllable starter (like, say, Reid Detmers?). It might be a tough pill to swallow, but the Cubs are going to have to make some tough decisions moving forward. Prospects are capital, first and foremost, and sometimes that capital needs to be spent via trade. Getting a controlled starting pitcher and continuing to build out the pitching depth (something the organization lacks) could be too good a chance to pass up. If you're unwilling to include Hartshorn in a big trade, perhaps the somewhat-blocked Rojas would be a more palatable loss. The good news is that the Cubs probably don't have to make a decision right now—or even in July—on the future of their big-time prospect. They can choose to go a different route via trade that doesn't involve Shaw, Ramírez or Rojas, or perhaps (if things fall off the rails) they'll stand pat. But a trade to thin this herd will have to happen at some point, either way. No matter what choice they make—either shipping out some of the overlap to give their infielder a free run to the majors or trading Rojas for a piece they feel they could use better—none of these are ultimately bad things. The only reason we're having these kinds of discussions are because he's been darn good. And regardless of what the Cubs end up doing, it seems quite obvious today that Rojas is about to play an important role in the future of the Cubs, one way or another. It will be either as a member of the North Siders, or as a primary trade chip. What would you prefer the Cubs do with Jefferson Rojas? Would you rather trade Matt Shaw or Pedro Ramirez? And what position do you think Rojas will eventually play? Let us know in the comment section below! View full article