If the Cubs were going to put Willson Contreras on the 10-day Injured List with his hamstring issue, today was the deadline by which to do so with the maximum backdating allowed (three days). In other words, if the Cubs had put Contreras on the IL today, he’d have to miss only another week. Since they aren’t doing it today, that means they expect him to be back at least within, say, the next day or three. Otherwise, you’d just IL him and not waste the roster spot.
Among the other pre-game injury updates today:
-Willson Contreras (hamstring tightness) still day to day, expected to avoid IL.
-Michael Rucker (turf toe) progressing with throwing program— Maddie Lee (@maddie_m_lee) May 24, 2022
Of all of that, it’s particularly good to hear that both Nico Hoerner (ankle) and Nick Madrigal (back) basically did everything today. For Hoerner, the hope is that he can straight up return to big league action by the end of this week. If he’s doing everything today, I feel like he’s got a good shot at being back in there come Thursday or Friday or Saturday.
For Madrigal, the next step is going to be a minor league rehab assignment no matter what, so you are similarly hoping that could begin sometime before next Monday’s minor league off-day. His stay in the minors will probably depend not only on how he recovers physically, but also on how this opportunity to reset could maybe get his timing at the plate back on track.
I would imagine Frazier can’t be all that much longer for Iowa (Bote has to be there at least through the first week of June because he’s on the 60-day IL). He has a minor league option remaining, so the Cubs don’t *have* to bring him back up when he’s healthy, but I’m guessing they will want to. And it would be nice if there were regular playing opportunities for him when he does come up – it still really matters for the future to know whether he can get back to the offensive level he’s shown in the past.