CHICAGO – The Cubs do not know exactly how things are going to go for Edward Cabrera as he shifts into a relief role in a crucial part of the season and with postseason baseball on the horizon. They do know what a best-case scenario can look like, however, and brought that up in conversations with the pitcher.
“One of the things we talked to Cabby about is there’s examples,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said ahead of Saturday's bout with the Pirates at Wrigley Field. “A great example from last year is what [Dodgers right-hander] Roki Sasaki did the last month and into the playoffs. That could happen. That’s an example. That’s a road map to how this could be really successful.”
Prior to Saturday’s game against the Pirates, the Cubs activated Cabrera from the 15-day injured list after the righty’s latest recurrence of a blister issue on his pitching hand. To clear a spot on the active roster, right-hander Trent Thornton was moved to the 15-day IL due to soreness in his left ankle.
The Sasaki scenario would be a perfect-world outcome.
The hard-throwing Dodgers righty moved into a bullpen role in September of last season and then was a key part of Los Angeles’ run to the World Series title in October. He spun a 0.84 ERA across nine playoff appearances, including a couple multi-inning efforts. If Cabrera could follow a similar path, it would be a rousing success story for the North Siders.
Of course, Counsell knows that is getting a little bit ahead of things to dream about that type of ending.
“That was a pretty darned good result,” Counsell said. “But that’s what you keep yourself open to. And I think that resonated with Cabby. We’re going to take some time to get there, but that certainly resonates. And we don’t know if we’re going to get there, but it’s a good blueprint that you can hope to repeat.”
This was not the blueprint the Cubs had in mind when they pulled off a blockbuster trade with the Marlins to land Cabrera over the offseason. The goal was to have him be an impact rotation member with top-of-the-staff potential. Multiple injuries -- two IL stints due to blister troubles and another lost chunk of time with a strained left adductor and hamstring -- derailed that prospect.
In 15 starts to date, Cabrera has posted a 5.68 ERA with 67 strikeouts against 32 walks in 76 innings. He came off a two-month IL stint on Aug. 16, only to have the blister woes land him back on the shelf. The Cubs decided less volume via a relief role might be the work-around for the blister problem.
That is very much in the to-be-determined category right now.
“We haven’t been able to find an answer to the blister situation,” Counsell said. “It’s something we haven’t been able to manage that well.”
During his recent rehab stint with Triple-A Iowa, the results were mixed for Cabrera. He allowed six runs in 3 2/3 innings with four strikeouts and two walks. That said, the velocity on his fastballs ticked up (97.8 mph on the four-seamer and 97.7 mph on the sinker) with Iowa, compared to how it looked in the Majors this year (96.2 mph on the four-seamer and 96.5 mph on the sinker).
“I feel confident. I feel good,” Cabrera said via team translator Fredy Quevedo Jr. “At the beginning, I would say in reality it wasn’t very easy. I had to change some things with my routine to be able to pitch out of the bullpen. But I feel good and confident right now.”
Cabrera acknowledged that moving to the bullpen is a work in progress.
“This is all new to me,” Cabrera said. “I’ll be out there ready for any situation. Whenever they call my name, I'm going to go out there and just be ready for anything.”
Being ready and open to anything is what Counsell said it required at this point in the season.
“Look, when you get to this time of year,” Counsell said, “we have to accept some discomfort here, because we have to do what’s best for the team. And I’m going to go back to this: Clayton Kershaw closed out a playoff series. That’s how it works. You have to do things that you’re not used to doing if you want to do great things.”