John Gudorf/ via Flickr

It is high time for the Chicago Cubs starting rotation to snap out of their collective, season-long funk.

With a 5–3 loss to the Colorado Rockies on Friday afternoon, the Cubs fell to 30–30 on the season to reach this pinnacle of mediocrity for the 11th time this season. Unfortunately, reaching mediocrity would actually be an improvement for a Cubs starting rotation that hasn’t met expectations this season.

After leading MLB in starter ERA last season, the Cubs starters have plummeted in this category to the tune of a 4.65 collective ERA which is 21st-best in MLB this season. To make matters worse, the Cubs will lose one of their best starters for ten days due to an injury.

Kyle Hendricks, the Cubs best starting pitcher this season by wins above replacement, was placed on the 10-day disabled list on Thursday due to tendon inflammation on the middle finger of his right hand. Chicago Cubs President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein deemed the move to the disabled list as precautionary and the injury itself as minor. However, for the next ten days, the Cubs must figure out how to compensate for the loss of Hendricks.

During a critical juncture of the season in a division that the Cubs increasingly look incapable of running away with, every win matters. This team can’t afford to continue to falter in the starting pitching department especially during this short stretch without one of their best pitchers.

The Cubs starting rotation will slot in like this through the extent of Hendricks’ visit to the disabled list. Obviously, Hendricks can’t make his start on June 14 against the New York Mets and Mike Montgomery, who received the start in place of Hendricks yesterday, will likely fill in for him on that day too.

Obviously, the Cubs had Hendricks scheduled to pitch two games that he will now miss due to his injury. What will come out of Hendricks’ time on the disabled list?

Mike Montgomery Tryout

The Cubs need starting pitching help, and Hendricks’ injury gives the team an opportunity to get a long, hard look at how well Montgomery can perform in this role.

On Friday against the potent Colorado Rockies offense, Montgomery held his own, surrendering two earned runs on three hits in four innings of work. He left the game with the score tied. However, the issue with Montgomery is always going to be his issues keeping his pitch count low. He works a lot of deep counts, and has trouble commanding his pitches at times. In the game Friday, he had already thrown 73 pitches (43 of which were strikes; 58.9 percent) when Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon took him out after the fourth inning. Obviously, pitch count is usually directly correlated with how many inning a starter can last, and if Montgomery can’t get his pitch count under control he may not last as a starter.

The Cubs will likely give Montgomery another opportunity to start on June 14th in Hendricks normally-scheduled pitching slot. It will be his second game in what has essentially become a tryout.

Although it’s unlikely that he is the Cubs long-term solution at the fifth starter spot, maybe Montgomery impresses in his start on June 14th and takes over this role from Eddie Butler once Kyle Hendricks returns.

Hendricks injury give the Cubs more wiggle room to explore in-house starting pitching options without fiddling with the order of the rotation too badly.

Piggyback Rides Discontinued For Now

Were you a fan of the Butler-Montgomery team up thing the Cubs implemented successfully on June 5 against the Miami Marlins? You know, the setup where Butler gave the Cubs 5.2 solid innings of work as the starter before handing the ball off to Montgomery who pitched the final 3.1 innings of the game.

Well, if you want to see how this setup works the second time around, you probably will have to be patient. Hendricks’ injury prevents Maddon from executing this strategy unless he wants to reshuffle the order of the rotation.

Montgomery threw 73 pitches on Friday afternoon, and will not be available tomorrow when Butler starts. The Cubs could plan it out so that Montgomery skips his projected June 14 start against the New York Mets so he can divide up the pitching duties with Butler on June 16. However, that would involve the Cubs finding another pitcher to take Montgomery’s start on June 14.

Seth Frankoff (the Cubs recently selected his contract) could be an option but given that the team is middling right now can the Cubs really afford to waste a start on a player who has only pitched one game at the MLB level?

Rotation Needs to Be Better, Top to Bottom

Hendricks’ minor injury doesn’t have a major impact on the current state of the Cubs starting rotation outside of the two minor consequences mentioned above. The Cubs starting pitchers just need to be better across the board, as every starter has underwhelmed this season.

John Lackey is in the midst of the worst season of his 15-year MLB career from a statistical perspective. He hasn’t pitched like even a quality fifth starter on a championship-level team this season, and if the Cubs were spoiled with starting pitching depth they probably wouldn’t continue to use the fiery 38-year-old Lackey.

Jake Arrieta has been better as of late, accumulating a 2.63 ERA in his last four starts. However, a lethal combination of mechanical issues, velocity trouble, and a lack of command has prevented him from returning to the Arrieta we saw the last three seasons.

Hendricks has also experienced velocity issues, and his ERA, fielding independent pitching (FIP), and WHIP are significantly higher than a season ago when he led MLB with his 2.13 ERA.

Even steady veteran Jon Lester has seen chinks in his armor exposed this season. He has an ERA north of 4.0 and has surrendered three or more runs in five of his last six starts.

The jury remains out on Butler, who has shown tremendous upside in several starts while blowing up in others. However, barring marked improvement and unless he shows consistency moving forward, he isn’t a pitcher that this team can rely on to get a win in a playoff game.

The bottom line is everybody in the starting rotation needs to pitch better. Hendricks’ absence shouldn’t impact what Lester, Arrieta, and Lackey do on the mound. If the Cubs starters don’t improve, the team isn’t going to repeat as World Series champions this season.

Paul Steeno spent 11 years pretending he was good at running. After hanging up the track spikes and officially becoming an elite hobby jogger, he decided to do something that he was actually good at: like writing about the Cubs. He is also a perpetually frustrated Chicago Bulls fan. This one time he got super lucky and ran 3:52 in the 1500 meter run.