CHICAGO -- The Cubs placed right-hander Jameson Taillon on the 15-day injured list Friday, retroactive to Tuesday, with a right calf strain and recalled left-hander Jordan Wicks from Triple-A Iowa.
Taillon, 33, is 7-6 with a 4.44 ERA in 17 starts this season with the Cubs, including a WHIP of 1.11. Cubs manager Craig Counsell said Taillon sustained the injury while running on Thursday following a bullpen session.
“He’s going to miss a pretty significant amount of time,” Counsell said. “More than a month.”
Wicks, 25, went 1-3 with one save, a 4.06 ERA and 46 strikeouts in 12 games (11 starts) with Iowa this season. In his last five starts dating to May 18, he posted a 1.65 ERA with 20 strikeouts, three walks, a 0.86 WHIP and a .186 opponents’ batting average. In that span, he ranks second in WHIP, tied for fourth in ERA, sixth in strikeout-to-walk ratio (6.67) and 10th in strikeouts per nine innings (11.02) among Triple-A pitchers (minimum five starts). In Wicks’ first stint with the Cubs this season in April, he made two relief appearances and allowed three earned runs in two innings.
Counsell said the plan for now is to use Wicks out of the bullpen, rather than have him slot into Taillon’s spot in the rotation. The Cubs will treat Saturday’s game against the Cardinals as a bullpen game, with a starter to be announced after Friday’s contest.
Going forward, the timing of the All-Star break will help the Cubs navigate around Taillon’s absence in the short term, Counsell said.
“These things happen,” Counsell said. “You have to, as an organization, be prepared for the next step, the next solution. And that’s where we’ll be. ... There’s a little room for us to be flexible right now, and we’ll use that to our advantage and go from there.”