In news that you might want to grouse about, but you can’t, because it’s about the birth of a wonderful little baby: Matt Garza has headed home to be with his wife as the couple awaits the birth of their fourth child. He was expected to be available to pitch as early as Saturday, but now, he’ll be re-evaluated on Friday, and almost certainly won’t pitch this weekend.
On the one hand, this is good news for the Cubs. If Garza doesn’t pitch this weekend, they’ve got a perfectly understandable reason: dude’s having a baby. He gets a few extra days to recover, and maybe he comes back even strong in his final start before the Trade Deadline.
On the other hand, this could be a bummer for the Cubs (again, setting aside the wonderfulness of the baby’s arrival – always a good thing). If Garza doesn’t pitch this weekend, he’ll have exactly ONE available game to start before the Trade Deadline, that being Monday night’s game against the Pirates. The Trade Deadline is 3pm CT on Tuesday, July 31, and the Cubs don’t play until later that night.
So, in other words, if Garza is going to get another start in before the deadline – which would seem a prerequisite to being able to trade him – it’s probably Monday or bust.
And, as the father of a Little Girl who waited until two weeks after her due date to arrive, it’s fair to wonder whether baby Garza might have a mind of his/her own, and Garza doesn’t make that start at all.