Coming off a sweep of the Mets with the division-rival Brewers in town, the Cubs lineup for Friday's ballgame at Wrigley Field elicited a lot of questions.
That's fair. It's not every day you see a team's leadoff and three hitter get a day off at the same time, especially when another star player is still dealing with an injury.
But Cubs manager Joe Maddon is taking a "Sunday lineup" approach to Friday's game, with Ian Happ leading off and playing center field in place of Jason Heyward, David Bote at third base instead of Kris Bryant and Victor Caratini once again at first over Anthony Rizzo.
The idea behind it is prioritizing rest and not pushing players needlessly, especially when the Cubs had a night game in New York Thursday night and didn't get back to Chicago until after 2 a.m.
In the past, teams used to treat Sundays as a time to give starters days off, but now MLB managers are utilizing that strategy whenever it suits their team best instead of just locking it into one day of the week.
And right now, Bryant is still dealing with a bit of a knee issue and Heyward is banged up from the wear and tear of a season that has seen him move to center field and leadoff full-time.
"I just thought it was the right day to do that," Maddon said. "Moving it forward, as we play more games like this for the rest of the year, I just want to be cognizant of that. Maybe it might be the wise thing to do. That's it. There's nothing secretive or compelling about it. I just thought it was the better way to go."
MLB
Maddon gave Kyle Schwarber his day off Thursday in New York and has said for the last couple weeks he's looking for a time to get Javy Baez a rest.
As for Rizzo, he's still not 100 percent from the mid-back issue. He left Saturday's game last weekend and has not played since.
"[Thursday] after the game, he was feeling a lot better," Maddon said. "But I still don't know when that day's gonna arrive. It's not starting-lineup-worthy yet, but he's getting better. That's all I really know."
The Cubs will have expanded rosters Sunday, but in the mean time, they have been getting by with Happ and Caratini at first base.
Bullpen-wise, the Cubs are in pretty good shape despite the need to use most of the top relievers in what looked to be a blowout Wednesday.
However, they probably won't push closer Craig Kimbrel to work a third day in a row after picking up saves Wednesday and Thursday. The Cubs have said they want to be cautious with him after he missed the first couple months of the season, but the final month is now approaching in the midst of a tight playoff race.
"Day game after a night game makes it a little bit more difficult," Maddon said. "But I thought his stuff was as good as it's been [Thursday] - velocity, fastball, reaction on his fastball was good. Sometimes, guys like that just need to play more. He's at that point where he may need to play more, not less."
Maddon said he hadn't yet talked to Kimbrel, so he didn't want to rule anything out. But applying the "Sunday lineup" approach would indicate there's no need to run him into the ground right now.
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