Chicago Cubs: Counsell gives injury update on pitchers as Maton begins rehab stint

The Chicago Cubs have been through the wringer when it comes to their pitching staff, although one wouldn’t really be able to tell by just looking at the box scores over the last several games. As a matter of fact, Saturday’s loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium ended a 10-game winning streak.

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The 12-4 shellacking, however, might be offering a glimpse at the strain that was bound to come with so many pitchers going down to injury at once.

All in all, the Cubs are still absent Cade Horton (out for the season), Phil Maton, Daniel Palencia, Caleb Thielbar, Hunter Harvey, and Ethan Roberts, with Matthew Boyd only recently returned to the roster after his own stint on the IL. At the Triple-A level, reliever Porter Hodge had season-ending elbow surgery and top prospect Jaxon Wiggins has also been put on the shelf.

Counsell offers update on injured pitchers

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The tiny sliver of good news in all of this mess of misfortune is that many of the hobbled pitchers aren’t long-term losses, according to Cubs manager Craig Counsell.

“Phil’s [Maton] pitching tonight and hopefully that’s a good sign,” Counsell told reporters on Friday. “Danny’s [Palencia] got a big day tomorrow, that’s gonna be an important day. Hunter’s [Harvey] a little more long-term, but nothing’s really that long-term, which has to be the positive in this.

“But injuries add up at some point, right? We’ve lost a lot of bodies and when you’ve lost that many bodies, it gets hard to keep replacing them with the same quality…The guys have done a great job. Frankly, we’ve got some tired guys right now, but they’re doing a heck of a job.”

Matons’ rehab outing, Palencia’s prognosis

Maton’s first rehab outing for Triple-A Iowa went well. He pitched one scoreless inning against the Louisville Bats, allowing 2 hits, but striking out 2 of the 3 batters he faced. Of the 25 pitches he threw, 19 were strikes.

The 33-year-old right-hander was signed in the offseason to a 2-year, $14.5 million contract and expected to be a linchpin for a restocked Cubs bullpen. So far this season, though, things haven’t panned out as expected. He was sporting an ugly 13.50 ERA through 5 appearances before going down with right knee tendonitis following an April 7 outing. The Cubs are hoping that the poor performances are tied to his injury and that a recovery will bring him back to being the consistently solid short-reliever they signed him to be.

Palencia, meanwhile, is expected to resume pitching sooner than previously expected as his originally diagnosed oblique issue turned out to be a much milder lat strain, instead.

Getting a healthy Maton and Palencia back in the bullpen will return some authority to a relief corps currently containing a rookie and 3 offseason minor league acquisitions.

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Source: https://www.chicitysports.com/chicago-cubs-injury-update-phil-maton-daniel-palencia-craig-counsell/