The Chicago Cubs are 19-12 and sitting just a game back of the division-leading Reds despite running what has essentially been a rotating cast of relievers in the late innings for the better part of three weeks. Caleb Thielbar was Craig Counsell’s de facto closer in Daniel Palencia’s absence before landing on the injured list himself. At peak injury chaos, the Cubs found Palencia, Thielbar, Phil Maton, Porter Hodge, Riley Martin, Shelby Miller, Ethan Roberts and Hunter Harvey all on the injured list simultaneously. That’s not an injury list, it’s a catastrophe.
The fact that Ben Brown has been quietly excellent through all of this has been clutch. Brown’s thrown 22.2 innings with five earned runs and 22 strikeouts on the young season. In San Diego he threw some of the highest leverage work of his career, including a bases-loaded, no-out, game saving escape act before also getting two outs in the ninth [VIDEO].
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There are rumors that Palencia might return as soon as this weekend according to The Athletic’s Patrick Mooney:
Honestly, that can’t happen fast enough. Craig Counsell clearly does not trust Brown to get the last out of a game, which is why he opted for the platoon advantage that (checks notes) Hoby Milner provides to secure the series victory against the Padres. Don’t get me wrong, it worked and I’m grateful for every out the 35-year-old lefty has recorded so far in 15 innings this season. I’m just also extremely skeptical it will keep working with just five strikeouts, four walks and 10 hits during those innings. I’m also not sure any of our nervous systems can take the type of stress a 2.40 ERA built on a 5.39 FIP induces for more than a few weeks.
A note of caution: while Palencia’s return is welcome, the injury he was dealing with is concerning. What was originally called a left oblique strain was later clarified as a lat strain. Neither diagnosis is particularly comforting for a pitcher whose entire value proposition is built on explosive arm action throwing 102 MPH gasolina.
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Maton could be a candidate for saves as Palencia works his way back. Once Harvey and Thielbar rejoin the team, which could happen later in May, Counsell will once again have a deep roster of genuine late-inning arms to deploy. And who knows, maybe an added bonus of this bullpen injury disaster is that Ben Brown gets the experience and confidence to be added to that high-leverage crew.
At the risk of handing it to Jed Hoyer and company, the fact that the organization had the depth to weather a storm like this for any amount of time is impressive. The fact that they’ve done it with a .613 win percentage is almost miraculous. The collection of cost-effective veterans with injury histories, alongside a trusted development pipeline, has been stress-tested hard this April and has largely passed with flying colors.
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