This Chicago Cubs team, while good, has a couple warts. One is depth. The Cubs bench is short with Daniel Descalso spiraling hard after a good offensive start and Addison Russell failing to hit his weight as well. The bench and depth wasn’t really a question coming into the season, but the absence of Ian Happ, ineffectiveness of Mark Zagunis, and the above shortcomings hasn’t helped.
The biggest question mark coming into 2019 was the pen, especially that closer’s spot.
Sure Carl Edwards Jr was an uncertainty, and outside of Pedro Strop and Steve Cishek, the relief cupboard was bare. It seemed as if the Cubs were hanging their hat on a bounce back season from Edwards, getting solid innings from Mike Montgomery, and riding Strop until Brandon Morrow came back from injury.
With multiple setbacks on Morrow’s recovery, the Cubs spinner the wheel on available closers (spoiler alert, it had one name on it). They signed Craig Kimbrel, and he began his path back to the bigs.
Kimbrel excited fans with his first two Iowa appearances, but had a questionable third appearance, a start, and the second game of back-to-back appearances.
The Cubs are preparing Kimbrel for another appearance on Tuesday, and according to Bruce Levine on 670-AM The Score, he could be activated as soon as Thursday. Levine said Kimbrel would immediately fall into the closer’s role upon him being called up.
Fittingly, Kimbrel could make his first 2019 appearance against his former team, the Atlanta Braves.
