As the Cubs were on the field Friday afternoon against the Royals, injured starting pitcher Marcus Stroman was addressing the media in street clothes.
His absence figures to last awhile.
“All the doctors know I’m going to fully heal and be back,” said Stroman, speaking publicly for the first time since the Cubs announced he had a fracture in his rib-cage cartilage. “It’s just we don’t know if it’s going to be three weeks, four weeks, five weeks, six weeks. No one knows the exact time frame.”
Battling for a playoff spot — and ideally the National League Central title — in late August, the Cubs would love to know if Stroman will be back in time for the final postseason push. With Drew Smyly recently moved to the bullpen, a rotation that carried the North Siders in the first half is suddenly strapped for options.
“Stro was one of the best pitchers in baseball for, like, two months, so we would love to get him back,” right-hander Jameson Taillon said after starting on regular rest even though the Cubs had two days off this week. “I really have no clue what his timeline is or where he’s going to be at.”
And in the wake of an injury Stroman acknowledged as rare for pitchers and in general, there’s mainly uncertainty because of the absence of a timeline and a concrete sense of what caused the injury.
“It’s kind of a question mark,” Stroman said when asked if there was a particular moment when the injury occurred.
Referencing his relatively healthy track record and his near-miraculous five-month recovery from an anterior cruciate ligament tear in 2015, Stroman said a strange feeling started creeping in after he threw a bullpen session last week in Toronto.
While his pregame activity, including his long-running practice of taking ground balls, did not raise alarms, he reported discomfort in his diaphragm to the training staff afterward.
For a time, Stroman said he feared something even more severe. Initial suspicion that something was affecting his appendix or gallbladder made the club wonder if it was safe for him to fly back to Chicago. Once he did, Stroman said he spent three hours in an emergency room ruling out such possibilities as appendicitis.
It was not until the next day that an MRI exam confirmed the cartilage fracture.
“Pretty alarming, very scary,” Stroman said of the symptoms. “It’s hard to sleep. It’s hard to sit for long periods of time. It’s hard to breathe at times when I’m sitting.”
Six weeks ago, Stroman was pitching some of the best baseball of his career. Whether the Cubs could extend their contractual control beyond this season, when he can opt out of his three-year pact early, was a daily discussion item. Now Stroman, 32, has a 9.11 ERA since July 1, has not pitched since the start of August and faces an injury with little precedent that threatens his availability for the rest of the season.
Stroman said he’s “doing some modalities here and there,” but he’s resting for the most part until the discomfort in his rib cage subsides.
With starting pitchers especially, any inactivity just increases the amount of time it’ll take to ramp back up. It’ll be difficult for Stroman to return to the form he had in his first 16 starts (2.28 ERA, more than six innings per outing).
Until then, Stroman plans to be away from the team, believing it’s best to refrain from road trips until he can help on the field. He thinks this Cubs team will survive his absence.
“I’m the biggest believer in this team,” Stroman said. “I truly believe we can win the division, and once you’re in the playoffs, it’s anyone’s game.”
