Well, that didn't take long. Chicago Cubs fans were already angsty enough after the team chose to add only Washington Nationals righty Michael Soroka to its starting rotation at last week's trade deadline. And then, just two innings into his Cubs debut, disaster struck: Soroka was pulled early in Monday night's 3-2 loss to the Cincinnati Reds with what the team is calling right shoulder discomfort.
"Just went to go put a little extra on a fastball and it grabbed me a little bit, didn't go away," Soroka told reporters. "You feel things here and there during the course of an outing, and usually if you throw another one and it's gone, it's nothing. Unfortunately that wasn't the case, so I decided to say something when I came in after that inning."
Manager Craig Counsell quickly confirmed after the game that the righty will be headed to the IL; for how long is still anyone's guess, but even best-case scenarios would put him out for most of the rest of August. Which puts the Cubs more or less back to square one: with a paper-thin rotation and an offense that hasn't been quite as capable of picking up the slack as some of its stars (Kyle Tucker and Seiya Suzuki especially) struggle to snap out of weeks-long funks.
There's certainly some bad luck involved here. But it's also true that the more corners you try to cut, the more vulnerable you leave yourself to the whims of the baseball gods. Any player can get hurt, but relying solely on Soroka to be Chicago's pitching savior was just asking for disaster to strike. And now that it has, fans have already started wondering why Jed Hoyer didn't take some bigger swings ahead of the deadline.
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3. RHP Jhoan Duran
The starting pitching market was a tricky one; precious few of them actually moved (Soroka, Merrill Kelly and Shane Bieber the major exceptions), largely thanks to sky-high asking prices for names like Sandy Alcantara, Edward Cabrera and Joe Ryan. But if Hoyer couldn't find value in upgrading his team's rotation, then the obvious pivot would have been to load up the bullpen to try and make up the difference.
And yet, he fiddled around the margins there as well, acquiring righty Andrew Kittredge and lefty Taylor Rogers while other NL favorites decided to load up. Chicago could have easily matched or exceeded the Phillies' package for Jhoan Duran, or even the Mets' package for someone like Ryan Helsley. But Hoyer once again blinked, and closer Daniel Palencia immediately blew a save against the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday. If Soroka is out for a significant period of time and this rotation is forced to rely more on the likes of Colin Rea and Ben Brown, they'll sure wish they had a few more bullets in the chamber.
2. 3B Eugenio Suarez
Of course, for as much attention as the pitching staff has gotten in recent days, the offense has been mired in a slump of its own. After scoring just two runs on Monday night, the Cubs have scored a grand total of 11 in four games since the trade deadline. And this is more than just a product of small sample size: Chicago's offense ranks just 19th in team OPS since the All-Star break, as Tucker, Suzuki, Ian Happ and Michael Busch have all gone into the tank at the same time.
Slumps happen to even the best offenses, and Chicago should still be fine over the long haul; this remains a deep and dangerous lineup, and the heart of its order is destined to get hot again sooner rather than later. But a shot in the arm could certainly have helped, and Cubs fans have to be wondering why Chicago didn't push harder to land the biggest bat on the market — who just happened to play the team's biggest position of need.
Again, the Cubs could absolutely have matched what the Seattle Mariners gave up for Eugenio Suarez; they simply chose not to, for whatever reason. But that puts a whole lot on the plate of unproven rookie Matt Shaw in the heat of a division race. Another known quantity would have done wonders given all the uncertainty surrounding this team right now.
1. RHP Edward Cabrera
Betting on Soroka was fine in a vacuum; there was reason to think he had underperformed his top-line numbers and would thrive with a change of scenery (and a better defense behind him). But even if the Cubs liked Soroka as a target, that still is no excuse for allowing him to be the only addition to this rotation. Not just because things often tend to go wrong with pitchers, but because Chicago more than anything needed someone they were confident they could give the ball to start a postseason game.
Cabrera would've fit that bill and then some, which the Cubs were reminded of over the weekend. It would've been a steep price to pay, based on what the Miami Marlins were rumored to have been asking. But the alternative, letting a prime opportunity to make a run at a title slip away in the only guaranteed year the team has with Tucker under contract, is far worse. And that reality just got a little bit closer with Soroka's injury.