For a team in need of starting pitching back on the July 31 trade deadline, the Cubs did precious little to fill their gap. What’s more, the little that they did add flamed out quickly, as starter Mike Soroka made one appearance and lasted 2.0 innings before being removed with a shoulder injury and sent to the injured list.
That was on August 4. Since then, Soroka has been working to find his way back to the North Side, though it’s been slow going. On Thursday, though, he finally made his first rehab appearance for Iowa, pitching 2.1 innings and allowing one hit (a homer) and three strikeouts.
That was, evidently, all the Cubs needed to see. Soroka will be up with the team this weekend, though the date of his next start has not been set.
“He’ll be activated with us for his next outing,” manager Craig Counsell said Friday. “We’ll see on the date right now.”
Mike Soroka’s Velocity Is Up
The mess with Soroka’s shoulder did shine a light back on general manager Jed Hoyer’s inability to add a quality starter–at least a veteran innings-eater–at the trade deadline. Making matters worse at the time was that Soroka’s shoulder was clearly having problems even before the August injury.
He was 0-3 with a 5.23 ERA in five July starts.
Soroka told reporters (via The Athletic) that he had an MRI with Washington before his start on July 29 against Houston.
“That’s kind of what we did for my peace of mind before my outing against the Astros,” Soroka said. “We looked at some avenues mechanically, some other things as to where the velocity went. We decided to check that other box off and there was nothing that presented to be an issue at the time there.”
Still, if there is a positive to be gleaned here it’s that Soroka’s fastball nearly touched 97 mph (96.6) in the Iowa start, which is well above where his velocity was in July and in his August start. Per FanGraphs, Soroka was just under 91 mph (90.8) when he pitched in his only outing for the Cubs.
Cubs Closer Dealing With Shoulder
The Cubs are also monitoring two very important injuries heading into the final weeks of the season. Closer Daniel Palencia is out with a shoulder injury after he was lit up for five runs without getting an out in his last appearance. Palencia has been a revelation this season as the closer, but had only thrown 43.0 big-league innings in his last two seasons.
Palencia has thrown 51.0 innings this year. Counsell said he played “diagnostic” catch on Friday, and the Cubs are still unsure what’s next for him.
Cubs’ Kyle Tucker On IL Too
There’s also All-Star outfielder Kyle Tucker, who has a strained calf that was progressing toward full health before a setback on Tuesday that forced the team to move him to the IR. He will be eligible to come back on September 17.
“I think the symptomatic stuff is the running right now,” Counsell said. “So we’re on a bike. We’re hitting still, throwing. We’re hoping to have a weekend of kind of no symptoms doing any of that. And that’ll lead us back onto the field. And to the running and then go from there.”
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