When Edward Cabrera returned from his injury, Craig Counsell announced that he’d go back in the rotation and David Peterson would go to the bullpen.
Welp. As you know, Cabrera’s start was a disaster and he wound up back on the injured list with a blister. Earlier this week I had asked you in the SB Nation Reacts survey who you’d like to see in the rotation to replace Cabrera.
Here are the results:
The majority got their wish, as Peterson will be added back to the rotation this weekend. He’s now the scheduled
starter for Saturday against the Mariners in Seattle.
Peterson did make one relief appearance during his “banishment,” 1.1 scoreless innings and 22 pitches during the Cubs’ win over the White Sox on Monday. So he’ll be going on normal rest in Saturday’s game and with that low pitch count Monday, should be able to (hopefully) go deep into the game.
The question remains: When Cabrera is eligible to return from the IL, should he go back in the rotation? I’m pretty sure the answer from most of you will be “no,” as Peterson has been quite effective since that awful start against the Cardinals in early July. In seven games since then: 2.06 ERA, 1.229 WHIP, 3.86 FIP and the Cubs won six of those seven games.
Cabrera might actually be quite effective out of the pen. He throws hard — up to 97 — and that 94 mile per hour changeup is a good out pitch when he has it working. And throwing one inning at a time might help him with his blister issue.
As always, we await developments.
Here are the results of the national question asked this week.
This is something with which I concur. The Diamondbacks, for example, made the postseason in 2023 with a negative run differential — 746 runs scored, 761 allowed. They were 84-78. Of course, with wild card teams you’re going to likely have some near-.500 teams in the postseason and in fact, this year there could be more than one with the American League Wild Card race currently with six teams within 1.5 games of the last wild card spot, every one of them under .500. And the AL West-leading Astros are only one game over .500.
All you have to do is get in and get hot for four weeks in October.
The Cubs, most likely, are a 92-95 win team and don’t have to worry about that — but still will have to have four hot weeks in October. Make it so.
This edition of SB Nation Reacts is sponsored by FanDuel.
