Rotation and Bullpen Finally Settling in, PCA Hitting, Maybe the Cubs Are Good? And Other Cubs Bullets

Apr 27, 2024

Shota Imanaga NL Cy Young Odds NL Rookie of the Year

Taking my toddler son to my nephew’s t-ball game today. Pretty excited about that.

In case you missed the good news, Justin Steele might need just ONE rehab appearance at a Cubs minor league affiliate before returning to the big league team, which is awesome and (to me) an unexpectedly quick turnaround. When he does return, I suspect Ben Brown will be the odd man out, though you have to think he’ll just head to the bullpen, which will be a really nice boost there (his high-octane, two-pitch mix is perfect for relief). The long-term goal for Brown is still to be a starter (he’s starting today, in fact), but as I’ve mentioned before, Brown will have an inning limit this year anyway. And more importantly, it’s not like you can bump Javier Assad from the rotation. That dude is straight-dealing every time he goes out there. And he’s not the only Cubs starter in a groove right now.

Shota Imanaga was brilliant once again last night, making the longest start for a Cubs pitcher this season (6.1 IP). Jordan Wicks also looks legitimately incredible, throwing harder and with more movement and whiffs than ever. And even Jameson Taillon has made two good starts since returning from the IL: 10.2 IP, 10H, 2ER, 2BB, 8K.

So soon enough, if all goes well, the Cubs rotation will look like this: Steele-Imanaga-Taillon-Wicks-Assad. And the bullpen will be: Adbert Alzolay, Hector Neris, Mark Leiter Jr., Keegan Thompson, Ben Brown, Hayden Wesneski, Yency Almonte, and Luke Little. I really like the look of that. You can’t just assume everyone will stay healthy and keep pitching well, but pretty much all of those arms have looked good lately. Honestly, the biggest concern there (in terms of key contributors) is probably Adbert Alzolay and Hector Neris. But there’s nothing we can do but hope those two start stabilizing their performance.

Either way, the Cubs bullpen now has a 3.62 ERA on the season (13th best) over 107.0 IP (t-4th most). And over their last 54.0 IP, the Cubs bullpen has a 1.83 ERA! What an incredible turaround.

Of course, it’s not a coincidence that the bullpen has looked better lately. Not only has the rotation finally started going deeper into games— here are the Cubs last four starts: Wicks (6.0 IP), Taillon (5.2 IP), Assad (5.2 IP), Imanaga (6.1 IP) — but also Hayden Wesneski and Keegan Thompson have each gone multiple innings per appearance, buying the pen even more rest.

Speaking of Keegan Thompson, he tossed another 2.2 scoreless innings last night, with just two hits and a walk, plus two strikeouts. He’s up to 9.2 scoreless innings on the year with 12Ks and three walks. If he and Hayden Wesneski are back to their 2022 form, and if Ben Brown takes to relief as well as we think he might, this Cubs bullpen is going to be an entirely different animal.

Brett had some fun with a couple of nice games from Pete Crow-Armstrong:

At .429/.429/.857/257 wRC+, Pete Crow-Armstrong is the best hitter in the National League.*

*min 5 PAs
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) April 27, 2024

All jokes aside, he does seem to look a little more relaxed at the plate (or maybe I’m just projecting my emotions onto him). No matter what, I don’t think the Cubs are planning on PCA staying up with the big league team when Seiya Suzuki comes back (let alone Cody Bellinger), but I also think saying that to manage expectations and give him a little more comfort. If he’s actually hitting, I don’t think the Cubs would send him back down. I just don’t think it’s fair to EXPECT him to keep hitting. It’s been two games. Let’s just enjoy it while it lasts and keep our focus long-term for PCA.

The Cubs won again last night, which brings them to a season-high 8-games over .500. And they didn’t reach that mark until the end of August last season. The stupid Brewers keep winning too, but there’s no use scoreboard watching in April. The Cubs just need to worry about themselves.

At The Athletic, Sahadev Sharma collected a bunch of positive quotes from the Cubs, including Dansby Swanson, who thinks the Cubs might just be good: “I reckon,” Swanson said. “I feel like we all knew and believed we had a really good team. Maybe this was the best way to show it. It’s unfortunate with the injuries, but we can do this. That’s why we’re the Chicago Cubs, it’s a total group effort.”

I really enjoyed this image.

Who has the number to The Louvre? pic.twitter.com/91qpEkM3my
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) April 27, 2024

written by

Michael Cerami

Michael Cerami began covering the Chicago Cubs for Bleacher Nation as a part-time contributor in 2015. One year later, he joined Bleacher Nation full-time, covering the Chicago Cubs and Major League Baseball. Today, Michael runs Bleacher Nation, contributing as a writer (Cubs, MLB) and an editor for all sections of the site, including the Chicago Bears, Bulls, and Blackhawks, as well as MLB, NBA, NHL, and NFL. In 2019, Michael was the co-host of NBC Sports Chicago's Cubs Post-Game Show Outside the Ivy. You can find him on Twitter/X @Michael_Cerami

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