The Chicago Cubs are going with a fresh face for Friday’s opener in San Francisco … sort of.
A little over 24 hours before the matchup, the Cubs locked in Javier Assad as their starter, per Elise Menaker. While it’s not necessarily a surprise, this only marks Assad’s fourth start of the season and his first since April 19.
Craig Counsell initially turned to Assad to fill in after Cade Horton went down with an injury. He started three games before returning to a bullpen role. In his second start, Assad gave up a brutal nine runs to the Philadelphia Phillies.
Assad would pitch in only a handful of more games before the Cubs chose to option him back to Triple-A on May 17. His stay in Iowa was short-lived, however, as more injuries and an ugly showing by Jordan Wicks led to the Cubs bringing him back to the North Side.
Assad will now earn another start just four days after he went a flawless 6.1 innings following Jameson Taillon’s early exit against the Giants. He only allowed a single hit and threw five strikeouts with only a single walk. Assad’s ERA this season sits at 4.73 over 32.1 innings of work.
Javier Assad has obviously been a go-to spot starter for the Cubs and Craig Counsell in the past. He was even a mainstay in the rotation only a few years ago, recording a 3.73 ERA in his 29 starts during the 2023 campaign.
In other words, Friday night shouldn’t feel like anything new for the 28-year-old. But does that mean he can do enough to earn some more work moving forward? If one thing is for sure, his last start provided a glimmer of hope.
Assad was lights out against the same team he will see tomorrow night. He relied heavily on his sinker in that outing, throwing 21 of 29 for strikes. We also saw him mix up his stuff extremely well, flashing multiple four-seamers, curves, change-ups, and cutters. His versatility has long been one of his best attributes. Assad has also been surprisingly good at limiting his walks this season. Of course, it’s been a small sample size, but this has been a big issue for him in the past.
Indeed, if Assad can keep his stuff in the zone and continue to force his fair share of groundouts, the Cubs may want to think twice about his role moving forward. Due to all the injury trouble, the pitching rotation sure feels pretty fluid right now.
Will Matthew Boyd deserve a spot once he makes it back from this setback? Absolutely, and he very well could take the currently open spot from Assad, allowing Ben Brown to keep cooking. The other option, however, could be to keep Assad, Boyd, and Brown in the mix, moving Colin Rea back to the bullpen. Rea has been serviceable, but the plan was never for him to be in the rotation again this season.
At the end of the day, this Cubs rotation or lineup has not been good enough to say anything is set in stone. Sometimes you have to ride the hot hand to get back on track, and Assad will have a chance to turn up the heat on Friday in The Bay.
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