The Cubs announced Tuesday that theyve optioned righty to Triple-A Iowa. Reliever was reinstated from the injured list in a corresponding move. Browns demotion opens a spot in the rotation for lefty , who is for Chicago. Its been an up-and-down season for the 25-year-old Brown, who has at times looked the part of a potential long-term member of the Cubs rotation. More often than not and especially recently hes struggled to work deep into games, however. Brown is sitting on a 6.13 ERA at this point, a number thats been inflated over the past five weeks. In Browns past seven starts, hes had individual outings wherein hes yielded six runs (twice) and eight runs (twice Riley O'brien Jersey ). Its derailed a decent start to the season for the promising young righty and has at least for now cost him his spot on the big league roster. Imanagas return will bolster whats been a reeling Cubs staff. Theyve made no secret about their plans to upgrade the rotation via the trade market. President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer publicly . Even beyond that comment, a need for help was readily apparent. Chicago has lost ace for the season due to elbow surgery. Young righty has yet to pitch this season due to multiple oblique injuries. was excellent upon first moving into the rotation but has struggled over the past month, just as Brown has. Imanaga was sidelined nearly two months with a hamstring injury. The Cubs need for pitching is no secret, but theyre one of just several clubs looking for immediate rotation help and doing so at a time when there are few clubs around the league willing to engage in genuine trade conversations. Be that as it may, Bruce Levine of 670 The Score said in a radio appearance on 670s Mully & Haugh this week ( ) that the Cubs are being extremely aggre sive and working on multiple fronts. Levine suggested a deal could come together well ahead of next months trade deadline and po sibly even within the next week to ten days. Levine downplayed the po sibility of the Cubs acquiring former Cy Young winner , whos slowly turning his season around after an awful start to the year in his return from Tommy John surgery. (Alcantara has a 2.74 ERA and 19-to-5 K/BB ratio in 23 innings acro s his past four starts.) Rather, he suggests that the Cubs have been looking at some le s-obvious trade candidates around the league. The Marlins themselves have other, le s-heralded trade candidates than Alcantara (e.g. ). The Mets before injuries to and thinned their depth. Clubs like the Orioles, Twins and D-backs could ultimately end up with starters on the market, but none of them seem ready to move in a sell direction with five-plus weeks before the deadline. The Rays can never be discounted as a po sible trade partner at any juncture, and theyre again rich in pitching (at a time when and are thriving in Triple-A). is almost certain to be available as a rental, but an aggre sive team could try to make a more substantial offer for someone like . Those are all speculative po sibilities, of course. The Cubs have kept their rotation search generally close to the vest. With Brown and Rea struggling recently and a bit banged up he exited his most recent start after a rough landing on his shoulder when spearing a comeback liner ( ) the need has become more noticeable. Boyd is on track to start tomorrows game for the Cubs, and the team called the i sue minor, but itll still be worth tracking how he gets through tomorrows outing. As for Brown, hell head back to Triple-A and look to get back on track. Injuries to any pitching staff are an inevitability, so even if the Cubs wind up adding a starter sooner than later, as Levine suggests, additional opportunities for Brown to start games could present themselves as the summer wears on. This is his second of three option years for the right-hander, so even if he stays down longer than 20 days and formally burns a minor league option, hell retain one more option year and remain a flexible piece for the Cubs moving forward. If Brown spends more than two weeks in Triple-A, itd push his path to free agency back by a year. Casey Lawrence Jersey
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