MESA, Ariz. — If the regular season is a marathon, as players and managers like to say, spring training is a leisurely jog on a Sunday afternoon that increases in intensity over the final week.
But the Chicago Cubs’ Tokyo excursion sent them on a slow jog starting in early February at camp to the start of the marathon in Japan and back to jogging again at Sloan Park while ramping up for Thursday’s domestic opener against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Bank One Park.
“It’s definitely an interesting challenge, playing games that matter and then coming back to play spring training games,” left fielder Ian Happ said. “For all of us, we’re just getting acclimated and keep getting those at-bats and staying in a place that’s ready to go Thursday.”
Happ and his teammates lauded the experience, but now it’s time to file away the memories and focus on the restart of the 2025 season.
Nico Hoerner, who missed Japan while rehabbing offseason flexor tendon surgery, is on track to be part of the roster for the reopener, but the Cubs still have a few decisions to make regarding the pitching staff.
Manager Craig Counsell said Saturday that opening-day starter Shota Imanaga will start Game 3 of the Diamondbacks series and the home opener April 4 at Wrigley Field. As local stars in Tokyo, Imanaga and Seiya Suzuki were pulled in many directions, and Counsell said Imanaga needed more time to recover.
“There’s just an added emotional component for them, and I’m glad Shota acknowledged it, frankly,” Counsell said. “It was just a lot.”
Counsell said Ben Brown is now in the mix with Colin Rea for the fifth starter’s job. Brown pitched 2 2/3 innings of relief in the 4-1 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the season opener, allowing two earned runs with five strikeouts, after giving up six runs on 13 hits over eight innings in the Cactus League. Rea has pitched only 4 2/3 innings in two starts this spring, so Brown appears to have a leg up.
“If that’s the direction we go, that’s a pretty good ceiling there,” Counsell said of Brown. “Interesting to see what happens.”
Brown said he thought he would be in the mix when spring training began, after his rookie season last year was shut down in early June with a neck injury.
“It was definitely a grind, but ultimately the Lord has seen me through all that and I’ve come out on the other side,” he said. “I’m just trying to get back to where I was.”
Counsell also announced reliever Tyson Miller was headed for the IL with left hip impingement, opening a bullpen spot. Miller has a 17.36 ERA in five spring appearances. Counsell said Miller’s mechanics were affected by the hip injury as far back as last summer.
Most of the regulars, aside from Hoerner, were back in the lineup Saturday in a 7-3 loss to the Colorado Rockies after a couple of days off to reacclimate.
Suzuki homered in his first two at-bats, and Jameson Taillon allowed five runs on six hits with six strikeouts over 4 2/3 innings in his final outing before Friday’s game in Phoenix.
Soon the Cubs go back to playing for real again. Taillon said after the game he already started talking about the Diamondbacks on the bench.
“Obviously the Diamondbacks have a really good lineup, and I faced some lefties today and we talked about what may work, what might not work, what we can adjust,” he said. “I won’t watch video or take notes for a few days, but I’ve ready flipped the page.”
Justin Steele will start the reopener Thursday, eight days after starting the Game 2 loss in Japan.
“Doing the opening game here in the States obviously has some meaning for me, about the same meaning it had for Shota opening up the game in Tokyo,” Steele said. “It’s something I take pride in.”
Steele was unconcerned over giving up four home runs in 8 2/3 innings in Cactus League games this spring and two more in Japan. He joked his long hair was to blame and got a businessman’s cut, but location was the real issue.
“Just got to make better pitches,” he said. “That’s all that is.”
Despite hitting .172 with no home runs and scoring four runs in the two-game Tokyo Series, the Cubs believe their offense is much improved over last year, when a prolonged funk from late April through June doomed their chances of contending. The Cubs hit .238 in April, .217 in May and .229 in June. Christopher Morel and Cody Bellinger are gone from that first-half lineup, while star right fielder Kyle Tucker and rookie third baseman Matt Shaw are newcomers and Pete Crow-Armstrong has a year under his belt.
“The beauty of our group is that (we can handle) literally any type of game,” shortstop Dansby Swanson said. “Any type of scenario or conditions at Wrigley. We’ve got speed, experience, younger guys, guys that can hit for power, guys that can hit doubles, guys that can draw walks. … You name it, we can do it.
“That’s the really cool thing here. It doesn’t have to come from one person. It can come from a group, so we have a chance to do some really cool things.”
Japan was an experience to remember, but the Cubs didn’t do any “cool things” on the field. They have three more exhibition games on tap at Sloan Park before Wednesday’s workout day and then another in a long line of opening days, including the Diamondbacks and A’s home openers.
At 0-2, the Cubs are in a hole with a tough Diamondbacks team and a young A’s team playing in their new home.
“It’d be nice to get out to a nice start,” Taillon said. “We have a tough April. I think everyone is aware of that. But 162 (games are) 162. You don’t want to overcook it. Be nice to get out of the gate, play good baseball and show we can play with the big boys and ride that momentum.”
The only certainty is there will be a lot of opening days for the Cubs.
“It felt like four in Japan with four (pregame) ceremonies, and we’ve got this one (Thursday) and Sacramento, and then we’ve got (Wrigley Field),” Happ said. “We’re about halfway through our opening schedule this year. We’re the team of openers this year.”
