ST. LOUIS – As the Cubs discussed their options for rescheduling Shota Imanaga’s start, after a rainout Friday, they of course were weighing the rotation implications for the coming week. But they also were looking much further ahead.
“We’ve been kind of spitballing when would be a good time to get Shota a little bit of a break with the workload,” pitching coach Tommy Hottovy told the Sun-Times. “And then when we found out that there was no doubleheader [this weekend], we started thinking about, OK, this is probably a really good opportunity to buy some extra days for some guys.”
The double-header was scheduled for the Cubs’ next time back in St. Louis, in mid-July, right before the All-Star break. So, instead of pushing back their rotation plan for the weekend, they moved Imanaga’s start to the next series, in Milwaukee.
Imanaga is set to slot in Wednesday, with Justin Steele and Ben Brown starting the first two games of the series. Imanaga will get 10 days between starts, essentially skipping a start to manage his innings with a view of the season as a whole.
“Maybe he was a little surprised by it, and he is feeling good,” manager Craig Counsell said. “This is a proactive move.”
Imanaga (53 ⅔ innings) and Javier Assad (53) lead the team in innings. The next highest is Brown (39.1), a rookie who has served as both a starter and reliever. The rest of the Cubs’ regular starters have spent time on the injured list already this season.
The Cubs jumped at the chance to manage Imanaga’s innings early in the season partly because if they are competing for a playoff spot, they might not have the chance to do so later in the year.
“He is making a transition and to a different league, to a different schedule, to a different travel sculpture schedule, to different culture,” Counsell said. “And know that puts more on him, and that if we could just take a small piece and do some things to refill the tank, so to speak, that in the long run, it could be beneficial.”
As the weather delay played out, Imanaga didn’t even throw a warmup on Friday, according to Hottovy. The lefty is set to throw a bullpen on Sunday to be ready on Wednesday.
“I’m not worried about rust,” Counsell said.
Smyly activated
The Cubs activated left-hander Drew Smyly from the 15-day IL on Saturday. In a corresponding move, they optioned side-armer José Cuas to Triple-A.
Smyly was out for a little over a month with an impingement in his right hip. He threw three innings Tuesday in his only rehab outing, so he’s stretched out to give the Cubs multiple innings out of the bullpen.
Injury updates
Lefty Jordan Wicks (strained left forearm) felt “great,” after throwing 33 pitches over two scoreless innings in a rehab start for Triple-A Iowa on Friday, according to the Cubs. Similarly, reliever Daniel Palencia (strained right forearm) came out of his third rehab outing well. He tossed 24 pitches in 1 ⅔ hitless innings Friday for the I-Cubs.