Hooray! Dang it!
That’s about the size of it when one guy returns from the Injured List to replace another guy heading to the Injured List.
So it is today with the Chicago Cubs, as back-up catcher Yan Gomes’ euphemistically described “tight” oblique was, indeed, actually a “strained” oblique. So that sucks, and who knows how long he’ll be out. More on his situation coming soon, I expect. Willson Contreras, who is available today off the bench, will now be backed up by P.J. Higgins for the foreseeable future.
In the meantime, the “hooray” part of the equation is that Nico Hoerner is coming back today from his ankle sprain. While it is still very annoying how it happened – an umpire not paying attention – at least it was a relatively short time on the Injured List. Hoerner is not in the starting lineup, however, so I’m wondering if he’s *almost* totally ready to go, but the Cubs figured they might as well activate him since Gomes was going to be down anyway. That is to say, we might not actually see Hoerner in there today, but he’s “back.”