NEWSLETTER
A trio of Cubs to update on the injury front, and I’d call the news mixed.
Kyle Hendricks is off for another MRI on his shoulder strain, to determine if there has been healing in there during his full shut-down. Even if it looks good, that doesn’t mean Hendricks will return this year.
From Jed Hoyer (Marquee): “The most important thing for us is that he gets healthy for next year. The most important thing is that we know going into offseason where he is. I think he feels the same way. I’d love it if he pitches again this year but I wouldn’t want to push anything to do so. So we’ll get the follow-up MRI, we’ll see where he is. And then that’ll kind of give us a sense of what we do next. We definitely want to make sure we’re working his way back, if for no other reason to make sure that we know what his health is and he knows what his health is going into the offseason so he can have a really productive offseason.”
Absolutely the right approach for so many reasons. My main hope for Hendricks is that this new MRI confirms that the issue still is/was always just in the muscle, not anything in the labrum or rotator cuff or any of that scary stuff in there. If it’s just muscular, and it just requires more time to rest and heal – and then the season runs out – you can still be hopeful that Hendricks can be a decent back-of-the-rotation option for the Cubs in 2023. They’re going to need that, and there’s nothing wrong with having a veteran like Hendricks around and eating those innings.
Adbert Alzolay (lat strain) is throwing live BP at this point, which is good, but Hoyer was not committing to a return this season.
“Whether he’ll get back on the mound here [at Wrigley] I think will be the question,” Hoyer said. “I’d love to get him back out here at some point this year, if nothing else just to prove that he’s healthy going into the offseason.”
If Alzolay is fully healthy and throwing live BP, and if he’s not stretching out beyond an inning or so of work at a time, then there SHOULD be enough time for him to get back on the big league mound this year. In theory, there’s plenty of time. I understand some caution, but I also think the Cubs want to know where Alzolay is at in his pitching before the offseason begins. He’s potentially an important swing arm for next season, and you’d like to know if he’s a decent bet to be able to pull it off, or a bad bet.
Speaking of that live BP that Alzolay threw … check out who he was throwing to:
Yes, that’s top Cubs prospect Brennen Davis, just a couple months removed from back surgery, taking swings. You love to see it, and it keeps you hopeful that Davis could be in games sometime this month.
From there, maybe fall or winter ball? It’s still TBD, as the Cubs balance the desire to make up for lost developmental time against the desire to give him some rest time.
From Hoyer (Cubs.com): “With Brennen, he’s in Arizona, he’s hitting. We’re certainly hopeful to get him back and figure out what his fall-winter looks like. Yeah, it’s going to be really important for him next year. Do you want to give a guy a real offseason? You don’t want to just have a guy play straight through. But also, he’s missed a lot of at-bats that are important at-bats. So, we need to figure that balance out. I think once we get him to truly game-ready, then I think we’ll have a lot of those discussions about what the fall and winter look like for him.”
