McKnight: Hammel staying off DL huge for Chicago Cubs
Make no mistake, Jason Hammel staying off the disabled list is huge for the Cubs.
In 103⅔ innings, Hammel's ERA (2.86), WHIP (. 954) and strike outs per nine (9.1) stack up squarely with Jake Arrieta's work (2.80 ERA, 1.047 WHIP, 9.1 K/9).
And with the relative struggles from Jon Lester to open the season, Hammel's dominant performance through the unofficial first half was downright necessary for the Cubs to bid for a wild-card spot.
Heading into the season, it was obvious the Cubs' starting pitching lacked real depth. They needed Arrieta to build on 2014. They hoped for Kyle Hendricks to be serviceable. They bought Lester after one of the most dominant walk-years a starting pitcher has ever had. Hammel was the buy-low guy.
Sure, Hammel's numbers with the Cubs last season were superb but his run with the A's brought back some of the questions that followed him in Baltimore. In Oakland, the strikeouts went down while the walks and home runs went up. Not great signs.
And so far meaningless.
The Cubs say Hammel is clear to rejoin the rotation after a hamstring scare two pitches into a July 8 start against the St. Louis Cardinals. The plan for now is that Hammel will get a few extra days of rest and take the fifth turn out of the break. That makes 12 days of rest before he draws the Cincinnati Reds on the road July 21.
Having Hammel saves the Cubs bacon - there's no doubt. But, even with him, there's a need to get better.
Over 17 starts (Travis Wood 7, Tsuyoshi Wada 7, Donn Roach 1, Dallas Beeler 1, Clayton Richard 1), the Cubs' fifth starter spot has thrown 85 innings and worked up an ERA of 4.65. Truth be told, that's not all that bad from the last spot in the rotation. It's when you work in the state of Cubs' pitching (on and off the 25-man roster) that it gets dicey.
Scouts often talk about projection when evaluating a player. There's just not much projection in the positive direction for the five guys who have started in the fifth spot. There's not much else in the minors of the top-tier or middle-tier variety.
With Hammel, the Cubs can confidently peruse available starters from any tier. If they so choose (though they won't) to fork over some of the talented young hitters in the system for top-tier names, they can.
They're also able to wade through some of the middle-tier options and hope they can find a bargain like they did with Arrieta, Hammel or even Scott Feldman. (Hammel and Feldman were free-agent pickups, but bargain buys nonetheless).
Without Hammel, even for a 15-day stretch, the situation would have been much more desperate. The Cubs will finished their July schedule with five under-.500 teams.
A chance to make hay. Having to negotiate a deal without a healthy Hammel might have given an opposing GM reason to keep prices high on any arm.
Ideally, the Cubs spend a little of their minor-league talent cache in going after a middle-tier arm. Whether he's a rental or on a long-term deal may ultimately be up to fate.
This season is a chance to add but next off-season, with immensely talented starting pitching on the market, is the next real benchmark in this Cubs era.
• Connor McKnight can be heard regularly on WGN 720-AM and is a co-host of The Beat, the station's sports talk show on the weekends. Follow him on Twitter @McKnight_WGN