About ten minutes to six, I felt a slight breeze in the whiskers that grace my upper lip: the collective sigh of Cubs fans, the response to the news that Jason Heyward would miss only three to five days from his Friday night collision with the AT&T Park wall. His Saturday MRI showed a bruise on his right ribs, a considerably lesser injury than that which could have occurred due to the face-first collision.
Forgive us for bracing for the worst. It was only last month that the Cubs lost Kyle Schwarber to a torn ACL, ending his season almost before it started. The Cubs found themselves starting Matt Szczur, Kris Bryant, and Jorge Soler in left, while Javier Baez found more at-bats in Schwarber’s absence. Heyward avoids a DL stint, but his departure from the lineup—and, more importantly, from right field—does have an impact on the roster.
The most obvious impact is on Jorge Soler’s playing time. Soler garnered a start Friday night in San Francisco and acquitted himself well, homering deep into the cool Bay night and making a pair of impressive defensive plays. It’s been a frustrating quarter of the season for Soler, who found himself on the short end of the stick following Schwarber’s injury. He lost starts to Szczur and Tommy La Stella and posted a disappointing .255 TAv. Soler is going to get a few more starts in left this week with Heyward out, so he’ll have his first opportunity to string a few successful games together and build on Friday’s showing.
The corresponding roster moves are perhaps a little surprising. Neil Ramirez’s time with the Cubs comes to a whimpering end, with a DFA. He’ll latch on with another club soon and have a chance to regain some velocity that he had lost due to a litany of injuries. In his place is Szczur, who returns from the disabled list just in time to add necessary outfield depth. The Cubs replace Heyward’s left-handed bat with Szczur and Soler’s right-handed ones, so there will be less matchup flexibility, but Szczur’s good numbers against lefties, including a .281 TAv in 2015, give Joe Maddon a better option when facing southpaws.
Heyward’s injury also forces Ben Zobrist into right field duty on Saturday night, and possibly for a few more games. Maddon has kept Zobrist at second base all season, where he’s excelled as half of the Cubs’ double play combo with Addison Russell. He was promised the starting job there when he signed in December. An outfield of Soler-Dexter Fowler-Zobrist is less than ideal, defensively, but it likely won’t have a large impact in such a short period. Javier Baez fills in at second, filling out an impressive quartet of young Cubs with Bryant, Russell, and Anthony Rizzo. Infield defense is perhaps a tick better, balancing some of the losses in the outfield.
Lastly, while it’s heartening that Heyward won’t hit the DL, the right-fielder suffers another small setback in a frustrating first season on the North Side. Wrist injuries have sapped his power this April and May, and he’s slipped to the tune of a .282 slugging percentage. Oblique injuries often have sizable impacts on power hitters’ ability to drive the ball, but a simple bruise will hopefully not have any lasting effects. If Heyward has been mentally pressing at the plate, a few days off could help; if he’s been implementing any mechanical or approach changes, a few days off could set him back. Either way, the Cubs lose Heyward’s impeccable outfield defense, and Heyward loses time in which he could have worked on his hitting.
The Cubs put away the streaking Giants Friday night with swagger, and they won’t lose a step as they head to St. Louis to face Heyward’s former team. Heed Douglas Adams’s wise words: don’t panic. Heyward, and the Cubs, will be just fine.
Lead photo courtesy Dennis Wierzbicki—USA Today Sports
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