Cubs pitching depth tested after rash of injuries

Injuries keep piling up for the Cubs. The team announced Saturday that right-hander Hayden Wesneski was placed on the 15-day injured list with a right forearm strain. Rookie reliever Hunter Bigge was recalled from Triple-A Iowa. Wesneski’s symptoms started yesterday when he was pitching and felt discomfort with his triceps and the Cubs took him out and immediately had imaging done.

The team hopes Wesneski’s injury is minor and that rest will allow him to recuperate quickly — similar to reliever Mark Leiter Jr., who had a forearm strain that caused him to miss 13 games.

Wesneski is now the 10th pitcher on the injured list for the Cubs. A goal for president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer was to create more pitching depth. Adding veterans Hector Neris and Yency Almonte added more experience to the bullpen. The emergence of young pitchers like Ben Brown, Jordan Wicks and Javier Assad strengthened the rotation.

However, a team can only withstand so many injuries at a certain point.

“In this last stretch of the season, we felt like we've been kind of caught up,” manager Craig Counsell said. “And then it's just been kind of one guy back, one guy down, so we've never been able to add to it, unfortunately, and get it back to the spot that we had hoped to have when the season started.”

Entering Saturday, the Cubs were 11th in ERA among starters (3.81), and the bullpen has 1.21 ERA since June 27 while allowing the fewest earned runs in the majors during that span (eight).

Injury woes

Left-hander Luke Little was diagnosed with a lat strain that will likely end his season but won’t require surgery, according to Counsell. Little was settling into a significant role in the bullpen. He was showing signs of harnessing his electric stuff, allowing one run over his last 9 ⅔ innings.

“Luke had gotten to a point where there was a real role for him on this team,” Counsell said. “There was development that happened this year, and it was really trending in a good direction. Unfortunately, that's probably going to have to stop now and wait until next year.”

Veteran reliever Julian Merryweather, who has been on the injured list since April 6 with a stress fracture in his rib, is showing signs that a return is imminent. The veteran right-hander pitched Friday night at Triple-A Iowa and struck out two batters and allowed two hits over 1 ⅔ innings.

“Very good,” Counsell said of Merryweather’s outing. “Everything went really well. The plan remains the same with Julian.”

Counsell said Friday that the latest Merryweather would return could be at the start of the Cubs’ road trip, which begins on July 26 in Kansas City.

Pitching development

Amid many injuries, the team’s improved pitching development has shined. Brown, Little and right-hander Porter Hodge have all taken steps forward in their development this season.

“That's the good news, right,” Counsell said. “The injuries to guys like [right-hander Adbert Alzolay]and Julian that you can't do anything about that set them back and really created some holes in the bullpen.

“Those are the guys you were really counting on. That changed some things early in the season. But overall, I think our young pitchers have made progress.”