Dillon Maples got caught up in the numbers game.

It's that simple.

Carl Edwards Jr. proved to the Cubs he was ready to rejoin the bullpen and Maples was the clear option to go back down to Iowa in a corresponding move. On the one hand, Maples and Kyle Ryan are the only relievers on the current roster with minor-league options remaining, but the Cubs also want Maples to go down and get more regular work to continue his development.

Maples spent 10 days in the big leagues but made only 3 appearances, during which he showed his incredible potential (6 strikeouts, 0 hits in 2.2 innings) and also his frustrating lack of command (5 walks).

There's no telling when Maples will be back in Chicago, but the Cubs know they have the makings of something special...if he can put it all together.

Just ask Adam Jones or Edwin Encarnacion:

Adam Jones on a Dillon Maples Middle/Middle 90mph Slider. 😂 pic.twitter.com/HTs11S2tKV — Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 27, 2019

Those are two veterans who have combined for nearly 15,000 plate appearances and 700 homers in the big leagues.

"It would be no fun to hit," Joe Maddon said. "First, he's throwing like 98 mph and sometimes, he's not 100 percent sure where that's going. And then he's got this incredibly — I don't even know what the spin rate is on his slider — but the way it breaks, it's just unusual. It's so quick.

"And you see the hitters telling you that. Good hitters are telling you that. As he really gains command of all this stuff, there's no telling how good he can be with good health. Because his stuff, his slider is exceptionally good and different. You see sliders, but not THAT one. The way it breaks and how quickly it breaks and how it buckles guys.

"... They call it a slider — it's like a hard slurve with a lot of spin. Just uncomfortable enough that you gotta fasten your seatbelt, brother. Interesting stuff, man. If we can harness this, he's gonna be a force."

This is the third season in a row Maples has seen some time in the big leagues, but it's been abbreviated each time — he was up with expanded rosters in September 2017, then was promoted for a few days in late-June/early-July last summer, back up for a lone outing during a July 21 doubleheader and then a return to Chicago for expanded rosters once again.

His minor-league numbers over the last two-plus seasons are eye-popping: 191 strikeouts in 110 innings (15.6 K/9), a 2.54 ERA and only 68 hits allowed, but he also walked 84 batters in that span.

A couple days before he was asked to pack his bags for Iowa, Maples said he actually was starting to feel more comfortable in his big-league skin and settling into "somewhat of a groove."

His Cubs teammates have gotten a kick out of seeing Maples jelly-leg his opponents with that wicked slider, but the 27-year-old is more focused on the task at hand — throwing strikes and getting outs.

"I don't see it," he said. "I don't see anybody doing anything up there as far as facial expressions or whatever. Even in A-ball, guys would say stuff and I'd be like, 'yeah, I didn't see it.'

"You gotta quickly move on. The next day, you gotta go out there and you gotta perform. You can't dwell on past things. Stay in the moment, reflect on things in the offseason or whatever. I'm just doing that right now — day-to-day. ... I want to put in a bigger body of work before I can sit down and enjoy things."

That's completely understandable for a guy who officially has 0.072 seasons of MLB service time under his belt. Especially when he was close to giving up professional baseball altogether in 2016.

He undoubtedly would've liked this latest cup of coffee in Chicago to last longer than a week and a half, but Maples is still heading back to Iowa with a key takeaway.

"Knowing what to expect and knowing that I can go out there and be the same guy I was in Triple-A or Double-A and still be successful," he said. "Before, it was like, 'Oh God, I gotta tap into something completely new. I gotta do this to catchers, me and him might not be on the same page.' It was just a culmination of all those thoughts.

"I feel like I have a better pulse on things [now]."

Maples also feels like he understands more now that this game doesn't change from the minors to the big leagues. It's still 60 feet, 6 inches from the pitcher's mound to home plate and most pitchers up in the majors have similar quality "stuff" as the minor leagues, only their consistency and confidence are at higher levels. He spent a lot of time watching veterans like Pedro Strop and Steve Cishek and knows what he has to do to emulate their longevity.

Maddon and the Cubs know, too.

"I continually see better," Maddon said over the weekend. "I mean, this is better than it had been. He still runs into those moments, but at the Triple-A level, he's been a little bit more consistent, which tells me that he can be that way here, too.

"For years, I talked about how sometimes a guy's body shows up and he's here in essence, but his mind is not. Sometimes it takes time for the thought process, the mind, the ability to process the moment to occur simultaneously with the actual body being here. I've seen that with other really talented guys. As long as they've shown it before somewhere, I think it can show up here."

Who knows when Maples will be back up in the big leagues, but the potential is so tantalizing, there's almost no way we've seen the last of him in Chicago.

"I think the biggest thing is that we keep his mind free and clear of making mistakes or trying to not make mistakes or trying to not walk people and going out there without any preconceived anything," Maddon said. "Just go pitch, like you've done in the past – see the catcher, throw the baseball.

"He's one or two lights out moments where he doesn't lose the plate and once he figures that out, wow. He's the guy that could really get us out of some tight jams. He's the strikeout. If you could bring him in for the strikeout where you don't want the ball put in play at all, that's quite a weapon.

"So it's there. Now we gotta continue to nurture it. It's gonna happen. For me, he's gotten better."

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