Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell survived his first meeting against his old team this weekend and now has three weeks before his much-anticipated return to Milwaukee.
Counsell continually downplayed the obvious media angle about facing his longtime team, as predicted, and will likely try to do so again when they play in American Family Field.
Best of luck to him.
“Counselling” aside, the first Cubs-Brewers series of 2024 lived up to its hype in the first two games with close affairs and strong starting pitching, leading into Sunday’s rubber game matchup between Javier Assad and Brewers ace Freddy Peralta. The Cubs drew six walks in five innings from Peralta while Assad had six shutout innings in the 5-0 win.
Here are three takeaways from the weekend:
1. Cubs starters continue their dominance
Neither Hayden Wesneski nor Jameson Taillon allowed a run in starts Friday and Saturday, and Cubs starters had a combined 3.24 ERA heading into Sunday, second in the National League behind the Philadelphia Phillies (2.60) and fourth in the majors. Since April 14 their 2.76 ERA was also second in the NL to the Phillies.
Justin Steele is scheduled to return Monday night against San Diego after injuring his hamstring in the opening-day start against Texas. It will be kind of a “do-over” for Steele, who was named opening-day starter in spring training.
“I was talking to my wife about it, I was super anxious about opening day and everything around it — first game of the year, first opening day for me,” Steele said. “And then obviously I got hurt. It was nice to get that one under my belt, and now I’ve got to do it again. I’m more excited just to be back up with the guys.”
Steele, Shota Imanaga, Taillon and Assad make up the top four of the Cubs rotation for the foreseeable future. Counsell will have to decide how to fit in Wesneski and Ben Brown, especially after Kyle Hendricks returns from his minor-league rehab stint and Jordan Wicks comes off the 10-day injured list.
Hendricks makes his second start Tuesday at Triple-A Iowa, and barring a setback should be ready to return next week. It will be hard to justify moving Wesneski to the bullpen, so Brown seems like the logical choice. Brown could become a high-leverage reliever while Adbert Alzolay tries to solve his problems in lower-leverage situations.
“If we can get to the point where we’re very healthy, we’re going to have some tougher decisions to make,” Counsell said Friday. “Right now, we’re still trying to put together the innings puzzle on a day-to-day basis. So trying to say Ben is this or Ben is that doesn’t seem logical for us to do right now. But what we do know is that Ben is getting hitters out, and there’s a spot for Ben.”
Wesneski has been the brightest spot, after an up-and-down debut in ’23. He admitted “I was not in a good head space” in spring training and “did not deserve to make the team.” Now his confidence is back and he’s pitching like his old self. He walked off to a standing ovation Friday after being removed.
“It never gets old,” he said. “That’s what you play for. It was cool to see my family here today, too. That was what I was looking for.”
Cade Horton, the top draft pick in ’22, was promoted to Iowa and made his first start there on Saturday with mixed results. Horton walked four over four innings while allowing two runs on two hits, taking the loss.
This kind of depth is what Cubs President Jed Hoyer envisioned when he took over from Theo Epstein and began to focus on drafting and developing starting pitching after a prolonged drought since the start of the original rebuild in 2012.
2. Defensive posture
The Cubs have one of the best middle infield duos in baseball in shortstop Dansby Swanson and second baseman Nico Hoerner, but they’re not infallible.
Going into Sunday, Swanson had four errors after making 11 in 2023 and was -1 in Defensive Runs Saved after being +36 last year. Hoerner committed five errors, tied for the major-league lead among second basemen, after making only seven in 2023, and had a -2 DRS after leading the National League at his position with a 12 DRS last year.
Hoerner booted a routine grounder Saturday in what was originally scored a hit until later being corrected. Swanson missed a sharply hit grounder on a backhanded attempt that he normally would’ve made Saturday but then had two defensive gems Sunday.
While Hoyer said during the Marquee broadcast Sunday the Cubs needed to clean up some “sloppy” play, Counsell strongly defended Swanson on Saturday, pointing out he’s been one of the game’s premier defensive players at short over his career.
“Dansby is a really good fielder,” Counsell said. “I’m really happy Dansby Swanson is our shortstop. We’re in good shape there. Has he made a couple throws he didn’t want to make? Yeah … I think that’s a safe thing to say going forward and a pretty good place to put our stock in. I feel really good about that. Other areas you’re concerned about?”
No one expects perfection, but it’s fair to point out when a star player is slumping.
3. Drawing board redux
Matt Mervis, 26, was called up from Iowa to add some left-handed pop to the lineup in the absence of Cody Bellinger. But Mervis went 3-for-26 with a .302 OPS and was demoted to Iowa on Saturday.
“It’s unfortunate,” Counsell said. “Matt has produced at a high level in the minor leagues, a very high level. He just went through a stretch where it didn’t play here, so we’ve just got to go back to the drawing board for him a little bit.”
The Cubs’ drawing board must be an Etch-A-Sketch at this point.
Mervis has hit .155 with a .257 slugging percentage in 127 plate appearances in two stints with the Cubs. In three-plus seasons at Iowa, he’s hitting .287 with a .556 slugging percentage. Obviously Mervis can hit for power in the minors, but needs to show he can do likewise in the big leagues.
Baseball is hard, as Counsell often points out.
But it’s also a business, and results matter.
