In some other yr, Marcus Stroman’s potential season-ending rib cartilage fracture would’ve had Chicago Cubs followers crying, “Why us?”
But this has been a season in contrast to some other in latest Cubs historical past, a roller-coaster experience that nobody might’ve seen coming again in spring coaching. They buried themselves on June 8 in Anaheim, Calif., falling 10 video games below .500, solely to bounce again into competition within the National League Central and wild-card race.
Though the Cubs have been solely three video games over .500 getting into Wednesday’s City Series finale towards the White Sox, which the Cubs gained 4-3 on a three-run, walk-off residence run by Christopher Morel, the environment in Wrigleyville matched the giddiness of the summer season of 2015, the turning level of Theo Epstein’s vaunted rebuild.
So if anybody is apprehensive the doable absence of Stroman for the ultimate seven weeks of the season has spoiled the Cubs’ probabilities of making a postseason run, they principally have saved their ideas to themselves.
Funny how that works.
Two months in the past Stroman was main the league in earned-run common and on his option to an All-Star look and one other large free-agent payday as soon as he opted out of the ultimate yr of his three-year, $71 million contract. When he began a dialog on Twitter in early June concerning the Cubs’ refusal to speak about an extension throughout the season, followers rushed to his protection and demanded administration give the ace no matter he needed.
But a poor begin in London towards the St. Louis Cardinals on June 25 was solely the beginning of Stroman’s struggles, and by the point he went on the 15-day harm checklist with a hip harm Aug. 1 he had develop into the weak hyperlink of the rotation.
A psychological reset was imagined to treatment all his ills, however then got here the mysterious harm that had everybody confused, from docs to the supervisor to the entrance workplace.
“We had no idea what it was,” President Jed Hoyer mentioned Wednesday. “It’s not your usual pitching injury. It’s not an arm. It’s not a shoulder. It’s not an elbow.”
We don’t know the way the rib harm occurred or when he presumably can return or what’s occurring in Stroman’s head. It’s principally what Lou Piniella may need known as a “Cubbie Occurrence,” the form of baseball oddity that the Cubs appear to have a patent on.
Hoyer mentioned the Cubs had no time to “wallow” within the information and that they’d the pitching depth to get by way of it. Manager David Ross mentioned Drew Smyly possible would return to the rotation after his latest demotion to the bullpen. Javier Assad, who on Wednesday made his third begin since Aug. 5, already had proved he deserved a spot.
Hoyer mentioned he felt “comfortable in house,” that means he didn’t plan to convey anybody as much as audition in a pennant race.
“He hasn’t been pitching for us,” he mentioned of Stroman. “We didn’t lose a pitcher that was active. We lost a guy we thought was pitching today who was on the IL. We’ll move forward with the guys we have right now. Obviously when you’re in a pennant race, you react differently than you would if you were not. So if that comes to it, we’ll make those decisions. But right now we don’t have to make those decisions.”
The Cubs can survive with out Stroman. In truth they have already got.
His struggles started in late June, which coincided with the staff’s return from the useless. The “Stro Show” didn’t actually issue into the resurgence. The hope was {that a} wholesome and rejuvenated Stroman would make the Cubs even higher, but when he got here again and continued to wrestle, it might’ve been powerful for Ross to drag him from the rotation down the stretch, as he did with Smyly.
Still, relying on Smyly to show issues round is an exceedingly optimistic outlook. And nearly as good as Assad has been, he’s nonetheless younger and untested. Veterans Kyle Hendricks and Jameson Taillon have expertise on playoff groups, and Ross will want each to choose it up a notch down the stretch to again up the uber-consistent Justin Steele, a Cy Young Award candidate.
This just isn’t precisely a do-or-die season for the Cubs, however in spite of everything this staff has gone by way of it might be deflating to finish the season with no journey to October. Hoyer rolled the cube on the commerce deadline by preserving Stroman and Cody Bellinger, realizing each might go away as free brokers after the season.
Bellinger was the larger threat as a result of he would’ve netted a nicer return in prospects. If the Cubs don’t make the playoffs and Bellinger will get away, it might be lose-lose for Hoyer, who known as him the “centerpiece” of the staff’s playoff push.
Did he have a look at it as an enormous gamble?
“Winning is better than not winning,” Hoyer mentioned, sounding as if he have been auditioning for a job with Obvious Shirts. “I really feel like that’s the aim. If you mentioned firstly of the yr he was going to play nice … and in case you take away the very fact he missed a month he’s within the MVP race and someplace within the high 4 or 5 guys. If you mentioned we’d be successful and he’d try this, I’d join that every one day.
“Certainly there is a cost associated with not being able to trade him, but the reason we do this is to win. The reason we signed him is to come in and play like this. When you look at it that way, it’s pretty easy and it was a pretty simple decision. And I’m glad he’s still here.”
If Stroman can come again and contribute this season, it is likely to be thought-about a bonus. But the Cubs can’t rely on that, so Hoyer have to be able to audible with the rotation if issues go south.
In essence, a bizarre season simply obtained somewhat bit weirder, which was the norm on the North Side. This was the Cubs Way a few of us grew up with and realized to like.
Welcome again, outdated good friend.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com