Things suddenly are mighty crowded on the Cubs’ pitching staff.
Earlier in the summer, injuries stretched the team’s pitching depth to its limits. But after president Jed Hoyer’s aggressive trade deadline, there are new questions on the North Side, chiefly:
How are the Cubs going to fit all their new pitching pieces together?
Questions, maybe. But not problematic ones, according to manager Craig Counsell.
‘‘You might look at it and say, ‘Oh, we’ve got too many starters. What are we going to do?’ We’ll figure it out,’’ Counsell said Monday. ‘‘And if that’s a problem? I don’t consider it a problem. We’re going to have to find some different ways and be creative, but we’ll do that.’’
Indeed, having too many pitchers to choose from strikes one as the proverbial good problem to have.
But the Cubs do have a puzzle to put together during the last two months of the regular season to get themselves into position for the deep October run they’re dreaming of.
The headline additions at the trade deadline, right-handers Kevin Gausman and Clay Holmes — who will make their Cubs debuts this weekend against the Royals — are easy to slot into the rotation alongside left-handers Matthew Boyd and Shota Imanaga, who have turned in one ace-like performance after another of late.
Holmes, who has made three recent rehab starts in his journey back from a fractured fibula, has experience as an All-Star closer from his time with the Yankees, during which he pitched in the World Series. He’s a starter now, but might the entirely different world of postseason pitching strategy see him return to a relief role?
‘‘You want to do whatever you can to win a ballgame at that point,’’ Holmes said. ‘‘That’s what makes the playoffs so fun. It’s really not about one person; it’s not about a role. It’s about, ‘What do you have to give?’ And, ‘What can you do for the team to win?’
‘‘Whatever it is down the stretch, whether they need a starter, the bullpen, I just love being out there when big outs are needed. Whenever that is, I’m all for it.’’
Beyond the aforementioned quartet, there’s left-hander David Peterson, who has been quite effective since coming over in a trade earlier this summer. Things figure to get interesting when right-hander Edward Cabrera comes back from the injured list in the coming weeks.
Is a six-man rotation brewing on the North Side?
‘‘I think we will go with six at certain times, yes,’’ Counsell said. ‘‘Every time through? No, we can’t do that. It puts too much on the bullpen.’’
Right-hander Colin Rea, who in fill-in duty has made more starts (19) than anyone on the team besides Imanaga, will join the relief corps — at least in the short term.
‘‘He’s going to skip a turn here; he’s going to be in the bullpen for the next turn [through the rotation],’’ Counsell said. ‘‘Past that, I don’t know what’s going to happen, and we’ll go from there. . . . My guess is that Colin will make more starts for this team this year because we’re going to need it.’’
Right-hander Javier Assad started Tuesday opposite the Dodgers’ Tarik Skubal and has performed well as an injury fill-in. Along with Rea, he figures to become the starting depth the Cubs struggled with during last postseason. So does left-hander Braxton Garrett, who is at Triple-A Iowa after arriving in a deadline deal.
Though Hoyer made splashy additions with Gausman and Holmes, pitching depth was truly at the top of his wish list. Mission accomplished on that front, as the Cubs have learned you can’t have too much pitching.
‘‘We’re more talented than we were 48 hours ago,’’ Hoyer said Monday. ‘‘Providing more talent and more depth was something that was critical. . . . We’ve spent the entire season making outside additions, small [ones], trying to get through the season.
‘‘Given how the season’s gone, given how we’ve had to consistently make those sort of moves over and over, really reinforcing our pitching staff for these last 50 games made a lot of sense.’’
