NEWSLETTER
The Chicago Cubs have played 16 games so far this season. Of those 16 games, a Cubs starter has made it through 6.0 innings of work exactly three times: (1) Shota Imanaga against the Rockies in the home opener, (2) Javier Assad against the Rockies the very next day, and (3) Ben Brown against the Arizona Diamondbacks on the road last night.
Big Ben Brown
Ben Brown is a bad, bad man.
Ben Brown was dealing in the desert for the @Cubs:
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) April 16, 2024
6 IP
1 H
1 R
2 BB
4 K pic.twitter.com/vzeV5FiG3F
Final line: 6.0 IP, 1H, 1ER, 2BB, 4K
Even though Imanaga has him beat on Game Score (81 to 71), the difference in opponent (the rockies are awful), setting (always nice to pitch at home), and climate (those were good days to pitch at Wrigley) leave me inclined to suggest that Ben Brown just made the best start of the year for a Chicago Cubs pitcher.
If you were watching, you know he got off to a bit of a bumpy start, with some hard contact, deep fly balls, and a couple of walks. But then you also know that once he settled in — which took all the way until the … final out of the 2nd inning — he retired 13 batters in a row to end his night at 84 pitches.
It was just fastball, curveball, fastball, curveball, over and over and the Diamondbacks couldn’t really do anything with him. Matthew Trueblood gives a little explanation why that may be …
… Lord help this league if he can develop a usable third pitch (likely a changeup).
And remember, this wasn’t against a bad offense. Coming into last night’s game, the Diamondbacks (105 wRC+) were above average overall.
Ideally, with his stuff, you’d like to see more than six whiffs in a game (he dialed it up to 98.6 MPH at his best and paired that with his excellent knuckle curve), but I just don’t feel like taking anything away from him. He was good and he got the job done.
So what happens next?
Brown entered the year as the 7th man on the depth chart before being unexpectedly thrust into early duty against the Rangers on the road for 1.2 unsuccessful innings of relief. But after he got his legs under him — and was, finally, afforded some preparation — Brown has been fantastic: 14.2 IP, 7H, 2ER, 4BB, 14Ks.
But Jameson Taillon is coming back, and it doesn’t seem particularly likely that Javier Assad, who’s also been great, is going to be bumped from the rotation. And if you assume Kyle Hendricks isn’t either (because he’s not a great candidate for the bullpen), then you’re right back to Brown being the odd man out (of the rotation, not the roster). And that’s before Justin Steele comes back.
Personally, I’m not sweating a bump from the rotation. For one, Brown is almost guaranteed to get more starts this season (whether he heads to Iowa or the pen), because of course he will. Injuries happen all the time and we’re not out of the woods, just because Taillon is coming back soon. For another, the Cubs are probably not eager to bump Brown’s inning total up so dramatically (he threw a career-high 104.0 IP in 2022 and just 92.2 IP last season). And of course, his two-pitch mix and high-octane stuff is pretty ideal for the bullpen in the meantime, and we all know they can use the help if that’s the route the Cubs go.
Perhaps if Kyle Hendricks lays another egg tonight, the tough conversation could be had (or maybe Craig Counsell wants to go to a six-man rotation for a while). But it’s not like I’m rooting for that. And there’s still some reason to believe Hendricks can turn it around, as we’ve previously explored.
Yes, Brown’s future likely lies in the rotation. But for now, I’m happy just to see him continue to take meaningful innings for the big league team, however/whenever they come.
