Cubs reliever Nick Burdi’s timeline to return from appendectomy becoming clearer

Reliever Nick Burdi isn’t expected to start baseball activities for at least a couple of weeks after undergoing an appendectomy on Wednesday. But he already was back in the clubhouse Wednesday afternoon.

“To me, this is an easy one,” said Burdi, who has undergone two Tommy John surgeries and an operation to treat thoracic outlet syndrome, to name a few.

He said even his wife, Rebecca, was thrown off when he came home from the hospital and kept using his arms.

“Because usually if I’m down, it’s with an arm,” Burdi said. “So this one, not as concerned by any means.”

The first stage of recovery is focused on letting the incision heal.

Burdi, a Hinsdale native, made his Cubs debut last week. It was his first major-league outing since 2020 because of arm injuries. He has allowed three runs in three innings and threw the fastest pitch (100.6 mph) of any Cub since 2016.

The Cubs have had three players undergo appendectomies in the last three seasons. In 2021, right-hander Trevor Williams was sidelined for five weeks. The next year, Clint Frazier was on the injured list for 3½ weeks.

Madrigal optioned

The Cubs optioned third baseman Nick Madrigal to Triple-A Iowa on Thursday to make room on the roster for Kyle Hendricks, whom the Cubs activated from the 15-day injured list to make his season debut Thursday.

“Just try to get him back on track, really,” manager David Ross said. “He started off swinging the bat pretty good. And we’ve got a lot of guys competing for playing time over there at third base, and just not a lot of room for that skill set right now.”

Madrigal converted from second base to third before this season and has looked comfortable at his new position. On the offensive side, he had a strong start, batting .345 in his first 12 games. But since then, he has hit .203.

He’ll play third base and second base in Triple-A, Ross said.