For obvious reasons, the prevailing assumption has been that, when Ted Lilly returns to the Chicago Cubs‘ rotation later this week, one of Carlos Silva or Tom Gorzelanny would be heading to the rotation.
But is it possible that another one of the starters could make the move? Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella was not ready to deny that possibility.
Asked about whether Silva and Gorzelanny’s starts this week against New York will determine who gets to stay, Piniella hedged:
“These last starts that these guys are getting is not a completion for who is going to stay in the rotation,” he said. “Look, we feel good about all our starters. We’re fortunate in that regard. Unfortunately, someone is going to have to go into the bullpen, and we’ll have some news for you later on this week.”
It wouldn’t be anyone besides Silva or Gorzelanny, right?
“I didn’t say that,” Piniella said. “I never said that. You all can say what you want. All I said basically is somebody’s got to leave the rotation to go into the bullpen. That’s all I said. You heard what I said. We have not made definite decisions…. If Lilly is not ready, there’s no sense addressing something like that.” Chicago Breaking Sports.
Piniella was pressed, but refused to expand.
Despite Piniella’s refusal to rule it out, let’s be real: do you really see him deciding to put Carlos Zambrano, Ryan Dempster, or Randy Wells in the bullpen? Of course not. The latter two have been brilliant, and the first one is liable to eat Piniella’s increasingly rotund belly if he’s moved from the rotation. Of course, it would make for a great reason to buy some baseball tickets.