After experiencing a setback in his quest to return to the big league mound this season, Ben Brown is done for the year.
Cubs manager Craig Counsell informed Thursday that Brown, the 26-year-old righty starter who was sidelined in June by a stress fracture in a vertebra in his neck, won’t pitch again this season, snuffing out any hopes that he could step in as a relief option down the stretch and in the postseason.
Reports on Brown’s rehab had been nothing but positive until he experienced symptoms during a live batting practice session last week in Arizona.
Now, the Cubs are forced to look to next season when it comes to a guy who was, when healthy, among the most effective pitchers in baseball earlier this season, posting a 1.70 ERA in eight starts.
“After consulting with doctors, it’s just [that he needs] more rest,” Counsell said. “There’s healing but not enough to allow the discomfort to go away. So we need to spend more time healing.
“The bone, it’s healing, but you can still see signs of an injury. The original thing was: We’re going to rest for a bit, and then we’re going to go when we’re not recreating symptoms. It worked until [last week].”
Brown was among a group of rehabbing pitchers who might have given the Cubs an embarrassment of intriguing options come October, a group getting more attention in the middle of the bullpen’s current rough patch.
But team brass has been cautious about the idea of lefty Justin Steele getting back to the big leagues this season after missing the vast majority of the last two campaigns while recovering from elbow surgery and a setback earlier this year.
Right-hander Edward Cabrera has been dogged by blister issues this season and hasn’t been very effective when healthy.
Righty reliever Shelby Miller was signed with little expectation he’d be available this season, though he was described by Counsell, along with Cabrera, as “the two guys who are closest” Thursday.
Given how effective Brown was while logging innings earlier this season, he was arguably the most likely to make an impact.
Now, he’ll be part of the large number of question marks about the starting rotation in 2027 and beyond.
The stress fracture was determined, two years after the fact, to be the injury that ended Brown’s 2024 season early, then misdiagnosed as an osteoma. That clarity was deemed a blessing by Brown, who saw a clearer path forward in June than he did years ago, when the Cubs spent so much time trying to figure out what was bothering him.
The righty said, too, that there would be long-term work on figuring out what changes he could make that might prevent this from happening in the future. Whether that’s possible or not remains to be seen.
“When you’re talking about those kinds of mechanics, some of those things are innate or how your body moves or reacts to pitching,” team president Jed Hoyer said Tuesday. “I’m not saying he can’t do it, but it’s more challenging than retraining your arm path or something like that. It’s something physical that we have to figure out.”
“These guys throw hard because their body moves a certain way,” Counsell said. “You can’t invent another way to do that.”
Meanwhile, Counsell & Co. are focused on the relievers they have at their disposal, several of whom are struggling right now.
They might have dodged a significant blow after righty closer Jacob Webb took a line drive off his throwing arm Wednesday, with Counsell saying the Cubs are hopeful Webb won’t have to go on the injured list.
But Webb and fellow high-leverage righty Daniel Palencia keep giving up runs.
“The bullpen is a ‘today’ question, so we’re worried about the guys we got right now,” Counsell said. “Those [rehabbing] guys have jobs to do, and that’s to continue pitching.
“They’re coming off injuries. I think they have to answer health questions still and recovery questions still. Those are different questions than the guys here.”