The Cubs’ banged-up starting rotation is getting healthier.
Right-hander Edward Cabrera, the team’s big offseason pitching acquisition, and lefty Matthew Boyd, a 2025 All-Star and this year’s Opening Day starter, are both due back from injuries soon.
Manager Craig Counsell said Tuesday that Cabrera, on the injured list with a blister, will return during the upcoming weekend series against the Giants.
Boyd, meanwhile, made a rehab start with Triple-A Iowa on Sunday as he works his way back after surgery for a torn meniscus. He’ll make another Saturday. Assuming all goes well, he’ll be “good to go,” Counsell said.
The imminent returns are a big deal for the Cubs, whose starting staff was decimated by injuries in the first two months. Right-hander Cade Horton was lost for the season for Tommy John surgery. Boyd has been on the shelf for a month.
“We need healthy bodies back,” Counsell acknowledged.
However, the other Cubs pitching news Tuesday indicates they aren’t exactly out of the woods when it comes to dealing with any future losses in the rotation. Lefty Jordan Wicks was sent back to Iowa after a pair of brief, ugly outings as a fill-in. The Pirates scorched him for eight runs last week in Pittsburgh, and he got a quick hook Sunday in St. Louis after facing just 10 batters and giving up another three runs.
Wicks returns to the minors with a gar-gantuan 15.63 ERA after just 6 „ innings with the big-league team, adding to the mixed results as the Cubs have tapped their starting pitching depth. Although Wicks’ cameo wasn’t pretty, Ben Brown has sparkled with a 1.92 ERA, emerging as the Cubs’ best pitcher this season. But Javier Assad was also shipped down to Iowa. Top prospect Jaxon Wiggins is working back from inflammation in his elbow. And Colin Rea hasn’t been quite as productive in a surprise rotation role as he was last season, sitting on a 4.70 ERA after he finished 2025 with a career-best 3.95 ERA in 32 games, all but five of them starts.
“Most of the guys on the starting staff have gone through injuries, so when your teammate goes through it, you do your best to try to pick him up and help him,” Rea told the Sun-Times on Tuesday. “I feel like I’ve been doing this, even when I was in Milwaukee. So I guess I’m somewhat used to it. . . . Whatever happens, I’m ready for it.”
Rea might need to stay on his toes. To make room for Cabrera and Boyd upon their returns, the Cubs already have jettisoned Wicks. Rea could be the odd man out, heading back to the bullpen to wait for the next injury absence.
“I don’t know what that’s going to look like. I haven’t thought about it too much,” Rea said. “If [a move to the bullpen] does happen, it speaks to the position that we’re in. If we’re making moves like that, it shows our rotation is strong. But I guess we’ll cross that bridge when it comes.”
With the way some of the Cubs’ other starters are performing, how long before they need to go searching for more options? They have invested too much in Jameson Taillon and Shota Imanaga, two accomplished and respected veterans, to just toss them aside. But they have been shaky. Taillon has allowed more home runs than any pitcher in the majors, with 20 on his tab. Imanaga isn’t far behind, with 13 homers surrendered. He and Taillon allowed 10 homers apiece last month.
At 5.33, Cubs starters had the third-highest ERA in baseball in May.
As is the case for nearly every MLB team nearly every year, pitching is assumed to be a trade-deadline priority for team president Jed Hoyer and the front office. As expectations for the Cubs have grown, Hoyer has shown a willingness to make moves for high-impact players, dealing highly regarded prospects away for outfielder Kyle Tucker and Cabrera in back-to-back offseasons.
But last summer, when adding a starting pitcher seemed almost mandatory, Hoyer didn’t pull the trigger on a deal. And the Cubs saw their starting pitchers run out of gas in the National League Division Series against the Brewers.
Can they prevent that problem and stop the season from coming to another earlier-than-desired end?
