Cubs Plan to Keep Playing Shorthanded in Atlanta

Kyle Tucker has missed the last four games after leaving this past Tuesday’s contest with calf tightness, and he’s not expected to be in the lineup when the Cubs play in Atlanta on Monday. Pete Crow-Armstrong fouled a ball off his right knee during Saturday’s loss and left the game, then was likewise absent on Sunday. Despite Craig Counsell saying both could be available in a pinch, that was not the case.

“I don’t think Tucker will be in the lineup tomorrow,” Counsell said after Sunday’s gutting defeat. “I think we’re starting to approach it like availability though. Pete’s…we’ll kinda see how he’s doing tomorrow and make a lineup decision on that tomorrow.”

If only there was a way for a team to designate players as injured and unable to play, thereby allowing them to add substitute players in the meantime. Wait, they do have such a system. And yet the Cubs seem to have at least one instance every season in which they inexplicably choose to keep an injured player active for several games, thereby playing shorthanded for much longer than necessary. Had Tucker been placed on the IL immediately, he’d already be halfway through his 10-day designation by Monday.

Instead, either he or the team is stubbornly avoiding time on the shelf. Whether this is Tucker’s fruitless attempt to avoid an injury-prone label headed into free agency or the team believing he’d be ready much sooner, it’s not making much sense. The fact that they brought Owen Caissie back to Chicago this weekend makes me think it’s Tucker’s choice to stay off the IL As for PCA, it’s still at just a one-game absence for now.

This wouldn’t be nearly as vexing if it was an exception to the rule, but Cubs fans are all too familiar with the team’s strategy. All that really matters is that the roster is healthy heading into the postseason; it’s just so frustrating when this stuff keeps happening. Ugh.