As the Cubs were on the field battling the last place Royals on Friday afternoon, injured starting pitcher Marcus Stroman addressed the media in street clothes.
That dichotomy figures to persist for a while.
“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 the All-Star right-hander has a fracture in his ribcage 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 timeframe.”
Battling for a playoff spot, and ideally the National League Central title, in late August, the Cubs would love to know that Stroman could 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 the best pitchers in baseball for like two months, so we would love to get him back” Jameson Taillon said Friday after starting on regular rest, despite the Cubs having two off days this week. “I really have no clue what his timeline is or where he’s going to be at.”
And in the immediate wake of Stroman suffering an injury he acknowledged is rare both for pitchers and in general, there’s mainly uncertainty. Both 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 singular moment where the injury occurred.
Referencing his relatively healthy track record and his near-miraculous five-month recovery from an ACL tear in 2015, Stroman said an anomalous feeling started creeping in after he threw a bullpen last week in Toronto. While his pregame activity, complete with the 32-year-old’s 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 provoked some questions whether 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 possibilities like appendicitis.
It was not until the next day that an MRI 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 of him beyond the end of this season, when he can opt out early of his three-year pact, was a daily discussion item. Now, Stroman holds 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 largely called upon to rest until the discomfort in his rib cage subsides. With starting pitchers especially, any inactivity just increases the amount of time it would take to ramp Stroman back up, let alone return to a form where he averaged over six innings per outing with a 2.28 ERA over his first 16 starts this year.
Until then, Stroman plans to be away from the team, believing it best to stay back 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,” said Stroman. “I truly believe we can win the division and once you’re in the playoffs, it’s anyone’s game.”
