Added pitching gives Cubs, Hottovy challenging roster decisions
With great wealth comes great responsibility.
The Cubs added pitching at the trade deadline, and there's more on the way with three players close to returning from the injured list, and at least two others they hope will be back before the season ends.
Pitching coach Tommy Hottovy and Cubs management will have some tricky decisions. Not everyone can start, not everyone can be sent to the minors. They don't want to release a guy, then wish they had him back two weeks later. Hottovy spoke before Thursday's game about the plans ahead.
“I'll just start by saying, it's been fun to grind over these last few months,” Hottovy said. “And with guys that have poured their heart and soul into keeping us in the position we are. It hasn't been easy.”
The Cubs made a move Thursday, sending reliever Tyler Ferguson down to Iowa, while calling up Braxton Garrett, a player recently acquired from Miami. Garrett has been almost exclusively a starter in his pro career, but the Cubs plan to use him in the bullpen.
“We can talk about starters and you can talk about the bullpen, but to me, they're all interchangeable and they all are interconnected, in a sense,” Hottovy said. “If you have good starting pitching, it allows you to push good pitchers you trust, like Colin Rea and Javy Assad, to the bullpen.”
Hottovy is hoping to see games, where instead of three or four relievers coming in to throw one inning each, the Cubs use Rea or Assad to complete all four.
The Cubs are currently in the midst of using seven different starting pitchers over a seven-day stretch. Beginning with the last game of the Yankees series, the Cubs used Rea, Matthew Boyd, Assad and Shota Imanaga. David Peterson started Thursday against Toronto, then newcomers Kevin Gausman and Clay Holmes are set to take the mound for the first two games in Kansas City this weekend.
Will the Cubs think about using a six-man rotation the rest of the season?
“I don't love doing six-man rotations, because you're going with one less arm in the bullpen,” Hottovy said. “So you either have to have a lot of length coverage, or you've got to have a fresh bullpen to do that. For me, it usually has to happen when there's a long stretch of games. We're kind of at the end of this 17-day stretch now.”
Then there's an improving health situation. Edward Cabrera, Daniel Palencia and Hoby Milner made rehab appearances for Triple-A Iowa on Wednesday, and Hottovy said all three will throw again in the minors before being activated.
So then what? If Cabrera joins the rotation, the Cubs are back to six starters, even with Rea and Assad joining the bullpen.
“I think we're definitely open to (using Cabrera in relief),” Hottovy said. “I mean, he's got an electric arm. It'd be crazy not to think about him being able to come in a postseason game and throw two or three innings.
“But I think it's important (for Cabrera) to start right now, for sure, and continue to build up. He looked really good yesterday. And he's trending in the right direction. Our goal is to get him back to being a starter.”
The Cubs are still hoping to see Ben Brown and Justin Steele back on the mound before the season ends. Brown is on the injured list with a neck issue, while Steele is returning from Tommy John surgery.
Hottovy said both are progressing well. Steele is probably a couple bullpen sessions away from facing batters in Arizona, while Brown is scheduled to throw his first official bullpen Friday.
“My big thing is, I just try not to get too far ahead,” Hottovy said. “I think, 'What do we have lined up for this next week?'
“We have a lot of guys here, though, that have earned the right to be here and stay here, too. So that's going to be the hard decision when those guys are ready to come back.”
mmcgraw@dailyherald.com