Brewers’ rival expected to receive huge boost to banged-up rotation in coming days

Once upon a time (i.e., like three weeks ago), the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers seemed destined to wage a historic battle for first place in the hotly contested NL Central.

Instead, besieged by an onslaught of injuries and a 10-game losing streak, the North Siders have faded listlessly to the middle of the pack, while the Crew have surged on ahead to the top of the division standings. In terms of health, run differential, or especially run prevention, the two clubs simply exist in two different stratospheres at the moment.

However, that may soon begin to change, at least on the first front. The Cubs are set to return Edward Cabrera to their rotation this weekend, while Opening Day starter Matthew Boyd is on track to make his final rehab appearance in Triple-A before following suit.

Will that duo be enough to help them climb out of the hole they dug for themselves in May?

Healthy returns from Edward Cabrera, Matthew Boyd won't be enough for Cubs to bridge pitching gap to Brewers

It's hard to quantify just how much the Cubs have been missing their star duo (not to mention Cade Horton and Justin Steele), but I can say this: They ranked 28th last month in rotation ERA (5.33) and got 0.2 fWAR from all of their starters combined.

For reference, the Brewers ranked first in the league in both categories in May, and Jacob Misiorowski alone was worth 1,200% more fWAR. Twelve hundred percent. For one pitcher against an entire rotation. That shouldn't even be possible.

Boyd (6.00 ERA but 2.34 FIP) and Cabrera (4.00 ERA) should greatly help the Cubs' cause -- the latter's expected return has already given management the leeway to demote Jordan Wicks, who was so laughably bad for them that Cubs fans were trying to figure out if they could get a player designated for assignment by way of petition.

Still, two pitchers with middling stats won't close the chasm that exists between Chicago and Milwaukee, at least in terms of raw talent. Misiorowski and Kyle Harrison have emerged as the best one-two punch in the entire league this year, while the Cubs, out of necessity, need to keep running their batting practice machines (Shota Imanaga and Jameson Taillon) out onto the mound twice every five days.

These two teams won't square off again until the end of June, so there's time for the Cubs to reset and get back to their winning ways. But, barring a miraculous turnaround from their healthy contingent of arms, they simply won't have the firepower to keep pace with the NL Central's heavyweight.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow