You could probably hear Trent Thornton breathing his sigh of relief on the other side of Lake Michigan.
The Cubs’ righty reliever came out of Monday night’s game after taking a 109-mile-an-hour liner off his foot, but Tuesday, the news seems good, that he’ll likely need just a few days to get back on the mound.
With the team’s bullpen already riddled with injuries, he didn’t want to be another.
“I do not want to go on the IL at all,” Thornton said Tuesday. “Whatever I need to do, put a Band-Aid on it, I’ll be good.
“I’m willing it that it’s going to feel fine and be good to go by later this week.”
Thornton, with a 2.70 ERA in 30 innings, has been one of several Cubs pitchers to step into unexpected roles while the staff has faced an avalanche of injuries that has threatened to bury the team.
The Cubs were thrilled they weathered the storm enough to finish the first half in playoff position.
But those clouds have not passed.
Earlier Monday, righty Phil Maton’s inflamed knee sent him to the IL for the third time this season. He’ll be out a while, with manager Craig Counsell saying Tuesday that Maton faces three weeks of inactivity after receiving a platelet-rich plasma injection.
Maton signed a two-year deal as part of Jed Hoyer’s attempt to build a strong bullpen for the second straight winter. To this point, those efforts have been far less successful than they were in 2025, with Maton’s lack of production — he’s got a 6.18 ERA — among the culprits.
Other signees, like lefty Hoby Milner (appendectomy) and righty Hunter Harvey (triceps inflammation), have been sidelined for long stretches. Righty closer Daniel Palencia is also down, in Arizona working back from elbow inflammation.
The Cubs have done great work making up for those absences from within. Thornton, lefty Ryan Rolison and righty Jacob Webb have been surprise contributors late in games.
But Hoyer, too, has searched high and low for any arms that might help shoulder the load: in-season trades for righties Tyler Ferguson and Jayden Murray and lefty David Peterson, a waiver claim on since-DFA’d righty Bryse Wilson and reunions with lefty Drew Pomeranz (also recently DFA’d) and righty Aaron Civale, just arrived in a trade with the A’s.
The Cubs, for all their work in piecing together a staff, are still desperate for pitching.
“From a pitching-staff standpoint, it’s been a challenge, obviously, with all the injuries,” Hoyer said last week. “That’s been challenging to get to steady footing, so to speak, and … the hope is we can get to that place.
“We may seek that out the entire [rest of the season], but to be in a place where we have more stability, pitching-wise, would be wonderful.”
While the minor moves, like the Civale trade, could help the Cubs survive, they figure to need something bigger to position themselves as true contenders alongside the Dodgers and Brewers on the NL side of the playoff bracket.
Might that mean pursuing a big-time starter? Or just more of Counsell’s beloved “out-getters”?
“Craig likes out-getters. He also likes not burning through the bullpen all the time,” Hoyer said a few days before Counsell used eight pitchers in Monday’s loss. “It’s important to be able to give him some stability.
“[One guy] getting 18 or even 21 outs in a game makes the next game a lot easier. … It has a cascading impact that is real. Of course, that would be important.”
Tarik Skubal is in the opposing dugout during this week’s series at Wrigley Field. Whether the Tigers end up parting with the superstar lefty, a back-to-back Cy Young winner, at the deadline remains to be seen. Whether the Cubs have the prospect capital to compete for his services is also a question.
Who else? Marlins righty Sandy Alcantara? Angels lefty Reid Detmers? Blue Jays righty Kevin Gausman? Red Sox righty Sonny Gray? Mets righty Clay Holmes? Tigers righty Casey Mize? Twins righty Joe Ryan?
And that’s without mentioning any relievers.
The logistics of any deal go well beyond need. But when it comes to filling the Cubs’ need, they all fit the bill.
