CHICAGO — With his usual hangdog mien, Cubs manager Craig Counsell sat down before the assembled media at Wrigley Field and updated us on the familiar state of the team.“We have a couple more injuries today, unfortunately,” Counsell said.Not exactly a stop-the-presses moment. More of a “dog bites man” story. Every sunrise comes with the promise of a new day and the reality of more Cubs injuries to report.The new arrivals on the injured list were utility man Matt Shaw, who was placed on the 10-day IL with a sprained left hand, and Ethan Roberts, who went on the 15-day IL with inflammation in his right forearm.Roberts is the seventh Cubs pitcher on the 15-day IL, and there are six more on the 60-day IL. That’s an entire pitching staff on the shelf.
The Chicago Cubs officially have a full MLB pitching staff on the Injured List-
SP-Justin SteeleCade HortonJameson TaillonBen BrownEdward Cabrera
RP- Porter HodgeShelby MillerHunter HarveyRiley MartinDaniel PalenciaPhil MatonHoby MilnerEthan Roberts
— Jacob Zanolla (@jacobzanolla) June 29, 2026Their injuries run the length of the human body, from neck (Ben Brown) to knee (Phil Maton), with a slew of elbow and forearm issues and some balky hamstrings thrown in for good measure. Some pitchers will be back soon — starter Jameson Taillon and closer Daniel Palencia are scheduled to throw — but others won’t be so lucky.The Cubs lost pitching phenom Cade Horton in April after two starts and a torn ulnar collateral ligament. Reliable reliever Hoby Milner went to Milwaukee with the team last weekend and left without an appendix.Justin Steele had a setback in his Tommy John recovery, and if we see him this season, he’ll be throwing out of the bullpen. Brown, who had matured into the team’s most valuable pitcher in this tumultuous season, is now out indefinitely with his second neck injury in three years.It’s been that kind of season, and it’s still only June. And yet the Cubs are surviving. They beat San Diego 3-2 in walk-off fashion on Monday to improve to 47-38. Counsell praised starter Shota Imanaga for pitching into the seventh inning, as the Cubs needed a longer outing.It’s once again desperate hours for president Jed Hoyer, who had to trade for beleaguered Mets starter David Peterson during the series in Queens last week. There is no real trade market right now with the deadline on Aug. 3.“Just kind of looking everywhere we can to find reinforcements,” Hoyer told reporters in New York.He didn’t have to go far to find Peterson, who had a 6.09 ERA with the Mets. Peterson, a 6-foot-6 left-hander, wound up winning his first start with the Cubs despite giving up a homer on the first pitch in Saturday’s game.Hoyer claimed Bryse Wilson off waivers from the Phillies last week, and he pitched 4 2/3 innings of scoreless baseball in Sunday’s bullpen game, in which they prevailed 4-3 in 10 innings. Ryan Rolison was the opener, and after two innings, he gave way to Wilson, who pitched until late in the game. He gave up four hits but no walks.So, Counsell, not exactly a modern-day Billy Martin, was understandably fired up in the dugout after Jordan Wicks, the seventh Cubs pitcher of the game, got out of a jam in the 10th to close out Sunday’s series-clinching win.“Look, we claimed a guy on waivers and had him start, basically, and you win the game,” he said Monday. “That’s just a good feeling. That doesn’t happen very often, I promise you that.”It’s fair to second-guess Counsell for sticking with starters too long or pulling a reliever too soon. As the saying goes, that’s baseball, and Counsell is paid pretty handsomely to do the job.And it’s certainly appropriate to question Hoyer’s roster-building at a time when many of the Cubs’ high-paid position players aren’t hitting and the pitching staff is one step away from being cryogenically frozen en masse.Hoyer knows building a bullpen is a year-to-year proposition with a lot of variables, and unless a team can swing a deal for Mason Miller, as Monday’s opponent San Diego did last season, it should never invest too much money there. Hoyer’s big-money addition this offseason was Maton, who has a 6.08 ERA in 30 appearances.Paying for pitching, in general, is a fraught exercise. That’s why it’s so important for teams to develop their own.One of the long-running jokes among reporters is the “Year of Cubs Pitching,” a callback to the middle days of the Theo Epstein era, when the Cubs were always predicting a breakthrough in the minor leagues. There have been many changes in approach, philosophy and infrastructure since then, and some positive results. But where are the young fireballers? Where’s their Jacob Misiorowski?That’s a macro question, but in the present the Cubs are showing their mettle in a challenging situation, and that should be recognized, if not applauded. On Monday, they picked up their 10th walk-off win of the season, while facing Miller, when Seiya Suzuki drove in Pete Crow-Armstrong with a hit off the ivy in left field.Why the Cubs can’t escape the BrewersKen RosenthalCounsell isn’t some dope. He knows how to run a pitching staff, and Hoyer and his staff have built a strong infield defense for a reason: it helps make mediocre pitching look better.That’s also why Hoyer pays handsomely for hitting, but right now, the ROI has been ugly. The team’s hitters have been healthy this season, but some of their numbers are nauseating.Alex Bregman, the team’s $175 million free-agent signing, has a higher OBP than slugging percentage, and his OBP isn’t great.Before the game, Bregman apologized for a poor effort running to first on a bobbled ground ball Sunday, but also pointed out that he was being mindful of injury.“I’ve also had 10 soft tissue injuries running down the first baseline specifically,” he said. “So, it’s kind of some give-and-take, but at the same time, I obviously wish I would’ve beat the throw.”I’m not sure I buy it. But given how things are going for the Cubs, who could blame him for being cautious? Perhaps he could mix in a few more home run trots just to be safe.
