Hendricks out, Montgomery in Friday for Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs will be without a key member of their starting rotation over the coming days.
On Thursday, they placed right-hander Kyle Hendricks on the 10-day disabled list because of tendinitis in his right hand.
The upshot is that left-hander Mike Montgomery, who has worked multiple innings of relief lately, will start Friday afternoon's game against the Colorado Rockies at Wrigley Field. It will be Montgomery's first start of the season.
To fill Hendricks' spot on the roster, the Cubs selected the contract of right-handed pitcher Seth Frankoff from Class AAA Iowa. They also transferred lefty Brett Anderson from the 10-day disabled list to the 60-day DL to make room for Frankoff on the 40-man roster.
Hendricks, who is 4-3 with a 4.09 ERA, experienced inflammation in the tendon near his right middle finger. The Cubs say they don't believe the injury is serious or long term.
"He just mentioned it yesterday for the first time after his side (session)," president Theo Epstein said.
Montgomery made 5 starts for the Cubs last year among his 17 appearances after being acquired in a July 20 trade with Seattle.
"He's been stretched out a little bit, also," manager Joe Maddon said. "He's at about 50 pitches this last time. We've done it a couple of times. So we feel good about that. We've been talking about getting Montgomery a start. There it is."
According to the Cubs and FanGraphs, Montgomery has thrown 589 pitches, the most of any reliever in the majors, ahead of San Diego's Craig Stammen (567).
Long road to the bigs:
Seth Frankoff was looking to make his major-league debut upon joining the Cubs. The 28-year-old right-hander went to spring training as a nonroster invitee after signing a minor-league contract in November.
He pitched in the Oakland organization from 2010-15 and for three clubs in the Los Angeles Dodgers' system last year.