MILWAUKEE — Yes, another Cubs pitcher has landed on the injured list.
An avalanche of pitching injuries keeps burying the team, which placed lefty reliever Phil Maton on the IL with right knee tendinitis Friday. It’s his second knee-related trip to the injured list this season.
“The first time, we gave him some time off. I think we made some progress. But we’re kind of getting back into the same territory again,” manager Craig Counsell said Friday. “We really need Phil to get going here. I think we’re getting closer, but we also feel like we’re taking some steps back with the health.
“If we can maybe use this time — and possibly the All-Star break — to get his health as good as we can get him for the second half, that’s important. Because we need a good version of Phil Maton.”
This blow might not hit in the same way the recent barrage of injuries in the starting rotation has. But Maton was signed to a two-year free-agent deal in the offseason to be an important piece of the Cubs’ late-inning puzzle.
Things haven’t worked out so well on that front to this point, with Maton owning a 6.08 ERA on the campaign.
There had been recent improvement. Maton had allowed only two runs in his previous dozen appearances coming into this week’s four-game series with the Mets.
“We’re getting there,” Maton told the Sun-Times on Monday. “But it’s one of those things where it’s, ‘That’s great, but you’ve got to go out and get the results now and put up some zeros.’ That’s what I’m looking forward to doing.”
But the veteran southpaw didn’t have a great series in New York, allowing a run in each of his two relief outings, both coming on solo homers. He walked a batter and hit another in the two games.
Frustrated fans might be relieved to get a break from seeing the struggling Maton inserted into high-leverage situations, but the Cubs’ pitching staff can’t afford any more subtractions.
The rotation has been the most affected by injuries, with basically an entire rotation on the IL at the moment. But the bullpen has not been immune, and Maton joins closer Daniel Palencia on the shelf, making Counsell’s juggling act in the late innings of games that much more difficult.
Suzuki’s nagging knee
Right fielder Seiya Suzuki is still dealing with enough discomfort in his right knee that the Cubs are continuing to use him as a designated hitter.
Since making an early exit from a game in San Francisco, Suzuki has made only one appearance in right field, in the second game of Wednesday’s doubleheader. He made a sliding play in that game that seemed to bother him a bit, and he didn’t play Thursday before returning to DH on Friday.
“It’s there, he’s managing it, he feels like he can play,” Counsell said. “But until we can get him a little break during the All-Star break, it’s going to be something that we’re dealing with, maybe, on a daily basis here.”
The knee obviously wasn’t bothering Suzuki to the point he couldn’t go deep against one of baseball’s best, homering to break up a nascent Jacob Misiorowski no-hit bid Friday.
Taillon tracking well
In a rare bit of good news on the pitching-injury front, veteran righty Jameson Taillon, working his way back from a hamstring injury, could possibly get back into big league games before the All-Star break.
“I’m making really, really exciting progress,” Taillon told the Sun-Times on Wednesday.
Counsell said Friday that if Taillon, who was initially estimated to be sidelined until after the break, does return before then, it would only be for one short start, and longer outings would come in the season’s second half.
