Chicago Cubs Montero to DL; Bryant rolls ankle

The Chicago Cubs have a couple of new injury situations.

Before Thursday's 7-2 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers, they placed catcher Miguel Montero on the 15-day disabled list because of lower-back tightness.

During the game, left fielder Kris Bryant exited after the fourth inning with what the Cubs termed a mild sprain of his right ankle. The team said Bryant "rolled" the ankle running the bases in the third inning, when he singled. Bryant, the 2015 Rookie of the Year in the National League, went for an MRI, which the Cubs said was precautionary.

"I saw him jog back in," said manager Joe Maddon. "I don't even want to create conjecture. Let's see what happens. Let's look at the test."

With Montero, Maddon said he could see trouble in the catcher's eyes.

"Even if you just talk to him, look in his eyes," Maddon said. "I said, 'Man, I can see in your eyes it's just not right.' He would have gone. If we needed him, he was definitely going to attempt to get loose and go out there and play, and I think he would have. But he would definitely done it under duress, and it's not really good for him and for us.

"Just give him a chance to get this thing settled down and get back to normal. I could absolutely just tell by talking to him that he was hurt."

To fill Montero's spot, the Cubs selected the contract of veteran catcher Tim Federowicz from Class AAA Iowa. Federowicz, 28, went to spring training with the Cubs as a nonroster player.

Montero has had a history of back problems. While with the Diamondbacks in 2013, a similar ailment put him on the DL for close to a month.

"It was pretty bad; I couldn't even walk," he said. "They had to take me in a wheelchair to my car."

This time, Montero didn't want to take a chance.

"It's not fair for me to go out there and kind of push it," he said. "I did have this before. It was even worse before. I don't want to get to that point. I just want to take it easy for a couple days and see how it goes. At this point, after four days, it's still pretty tight. I could have played, but what if I aggravated it more? It's early in the year, so I don't feel like it's necessary."

Not yet for Contreras:

The Cubs chose a veteran catcher in Tim Federowicz over prospect Willson Contreras, who also is at Iowa, to replace Miguel Montero.

"We just had to make a choice right there," Joe Maddon said. "Obviously, Fed was here for a reason. Fed had a great spring training. You're looking at the overall development of Contreras. In your mind's eye, if you're putting this whole thing together, a guy like Willson, you're probably going to wait until the second half, hopefully, to get him here the second half or the latter part of the season."

Montero provided some perspective.

"When I came up to the big leagues my first year, I thought it was going to be easier," he said. "Sometimes I wondered the same question for myself: How difficult could it be? To be honest, I didn't realize until I had a couple years in that it is harder than you think it is, especially when you have these kinds of pitchers, who are older and have been around a long time.

"You put a lot of pressure on yourself, trying to call a perfect game for these guys. It's a lot of weight on your shoulders. Time will come for him."

This and that:

The Cubs have won Jake Arrieta's last 18 regular-season starts, a franchise record. They've outscored opponents 99-22 in those games. Arrieta became the first Cubs pitcher to go 5-0 in his first 5 starts since Greg Maddux in 2006 … The Cubs' 16-5 record is their best 21-game start since the 1907 club went 17-4 … Cubs batters saw a season-high 199 pitches. They saw 198 last week in Cincinnati.