Explore the latest developments concerning Cubs' rotation looks.
Cubs' rotation looks braced for October push
This story was excerpted from Jordan Bastian's Cubs Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
CHICAGO — There is still a long road to the postseason, and the Cubs plan on using the remaining weeks in the regular season to determine their best path forward with the starting rotation. After seeing the staff stripped thin by injuries earlier this summer, Chicago has solid depth at this specific moment in time.
With hard-throwing righty Edward Cabrera back from the 15-day injured list — he looked rusty in his first start back on Sunday against the Cardinals — Cubs manager Craig Counsell had some decisions to make with the staff. First and foremost, Counsell felt sticking with a five-man rotation was the best approach to maintain a deeper bullpen right now.
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In late June, if you were to say that the Chicago Cubs would be dealing with a surplus of pitching heading into the second half of August, you would’ve been laughed out of the room.
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On June 25, the Cubs made a desperation trade with the New York Mets to acquire veteran David Peterson because they literally were struggling to man even a four-man starting rotation.
Ben Brown, who had been carrying an already stressed and strained rotation, had just been put on the IL, downed by what has become a chronic neck issue. A day earlier, Edward Cabrera was placed on the IL as well, after suffering a left hamstring strain while trying to cover first base on a ground ball. Then there were the struggles of Jameson Taillon, who was getting crushed by opposition hitting, posting a 5.92 ERA through 15 starts.
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The New Rotation: A Stuff Analysis
It has been awhile since I last wrote. Quite a number of twists and turns to this season are worth covering…
But perhaps the most important thing is that the Cubs went "all in" on contending this year. Fans are used to feeling like Jed Hoyer is too cautious and cheap to do such a thing. But here we are…
Let's rank the current starting rotation options in terms of stuff, to get an idea of what we're looking at in the coming postseason run.
"Deserved ERA": The Fragile Duo
The Rotation is not very good, if we rely on expected ERA (xERA), Stuff+, and WAR metrics. Many "expected" stats closely track each other in the rankings, meaning that it doesn't matter too much if you look at Stuff+, WAR, xERA, and so on.
For more detailed information, explore updates concerning Cubs' rotation looks.
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