PITTSBURGH -- The Chicago Cubs added to their short list of the walking wounded when outfielder Chris Coghlan injured his left ankle Wednesday night. And the team announced pitcher Jason Hammel will be skipped on Friday due to elbow tightness. Neither injury sounds serious, but the Cubs are playing it cautious, considering there’s nothing left to play for in the regular season.

“I’m hoping just a day or two,” Coghlan said.

Coghlan hurt himself running into the left-field wall trying to track down a fly ball, and Hammel said his elbow has been barking for a couple of weeks.

“After a while, it started to get too tight, then you start risking injury,” Hammel said.

The pitcher has struggled recently, pointing to his slider not having the movement he’s used to getting.

“I’m sure 100 percent it was one of the causes for it,” Hammel said of his elbow. “It restricts your range of motion. ... I feel good right now, but we’re not going to risk it.”

Hammel says he’ll be able to throw next week during workouts for the postseason.

Manager Joe Maddon wasn’t ready to declare his playoff rotation, though he said, “you can always draw your conclusions, no question.” Considering most observers assumed Hammel was on the outside looking in for a roster spot, this injury can’t help matters.

As for oft-injured outfielder Jorge Soler, he rejoined the team on Thursday to be reevaluated (right oblique injury). Soler has started just one game in two weeks, but Maddon said Soler doesn’t necessarily have to play this weekend against the Cincinnati Reds to make the postseason roster.

“I’d love to see him play, but if he doesn’t, it doesn’t knock him out of the conversation,” Maddon said.

Here's the good news: Soler has shown he can jump right in and perform, as he did last postseason and earlier this year after struggling in the minors. The Cubs brought him up, and he took off.

“You want to test it, but you don’t want to test too soon, then it could totally take him out of the entire postseason,” Maddon said. “You have to be careful in a sense. Once in a while, he feels it in a minor way. We just have to wait for him to say it’s up to par.”