John Lackey, relief pitcher? Here's a stab at Cubs' roster vs. Nats

John Lackey, relief pitcher? Here’s a stab at Cubs’ roster vs. Nats

By Steve Greenberg

John Lackey will work out of the Cubs bullpen in the NLDS. (Getty Images)

Another regular season is in the books. There were 92 victories. A second consecutive division crown. Approximately 3.2 million in home attendance. The Cubs will gladly take it all.

The good news? After a meaningless 3-1 loss to the Reds in the finale Sunday, the Cubs enter their NLDS matchup against the Nationals as the only defending World Series champion in the last five years to make it back to the playoffs. The bad news? Well, there is no bad news. But this year’s Cubs were a far cry from last year’s team over the 162-game haul.

“It’s almost like — we all live in cold weather — when you go out there in the morning and you try to turn that vehicle over, and it just does not want to start,” manager Joe Maddon said. “That was my Uncle Chuck. Uncle Chuck was all about that. His vehicles would never want to start.

“And then eventually it does kick in. It might cough a little bit and sputter, but, if the car is finely tuned, eventually it’s going to run properly. It’s kind of what the year was all about. We could not get it to turn over, and then eventually it did. And then all of a sudden we started playing like we can. So I always think about my Uncle Chuck in those situations.”

We’re sure Uncle Chuck would have wanted us to try to answer a few key questions that were hanging over Wrigley Field all weekend:

1. Who’s going to be on the playoff roster?

There are 22 locks — 10 of them pitchers — for the 25 roster spots against the Nationals. (Remember, the roster can be changed before each new series.)

Pitchers: Jake Arrieta, Kyle Hendricks, Jon Lester, Jose Quintana, John Lackey, Mike Montgomery, Wade Davis, Carl Edwards Jr., Pedro Strop and Brian Duensing.

The number won’t stay at 10. Best guess: It grows by one, and that one is lefty reliever Justin Wilson. Veteran righty reliever Hector Rondon is a possible 12th pitcher, or he conceivably could get the call over Wilson as the 11th and final arm. More likely Rondon — and Justin Grimm — goes the odd-man-out route.

Position players: Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, Willson Contreras, Addison Russell, Javy Baez, Jason Heyward, Ben Zobrist, Jon Jay, Kyle Schwarber, Ian Happ, Albert Almora Jr. and Alex Avila.

There will be one or two others. Will lefty pinch-hitting specialist Tommy La Stella get the nod, unlike a year ago? Probably. It could go either way with No. 3 catcher Rene Rivera. Outfielder Leonys Martin is almost surely a no.

2. What will be the starting rotation?

We’d bet at least a few bucks on this order: Lester in Game 1, followed by Hendricks, Arrieta and, if necessary, Quintana.

We’d bet the farm on Lackey’s being in the bullpen. He pitched an inning of relief Sunday against the Reds — the first time since 2004 that he’d pitched in a regular-season game started by someone else — but Maddon wouldn’t confirm that a decision had been made.

Neither would Lackey when he spotted a group of media waiting at his locker and hoping to ask him about it.

“Yeah, that’s not happening,” he snapped.

3. When will this stuff become official?

Maddon will meet Wednesday with pitching coach Chris Bosio and president of baseball operations Theo Epstein to discuss the rotation. We should have answers that afternoon.

The big roster reveal might take a little longer. The Cubs don’t have to announce that until Friday morning, the day of Game 1.

Follow me on Twitter @SLGreenberg.

Email: sgreenberg@suntimes.com