Before injury struck, one Cubs teammate thought Adbert Alzolay was ‘ready to explode'

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A lat injury came at a terrible time for Adbert Alzolay.

The Cubs top prospect had to leave his start Tuesday with the shoulder/back issue. He had notched four perfect innings before being removed from the game.

Alzolay probably wasn't going to be coming to the big leagues anytime soon for multiple reasons, but Chris Gimenez was ready for the 23-year-old right-hander to break out with Triple-A Iowa before the injury.

Gimenez — the veteran catcher who spent the first two months of the season with Iowa — just got called up to Chicago over the weekend and had a lot of nice things to say about Alzolay.

"That's a special human being right there," the veteran catcher said. "My goodness. Tremendous young man. Very, very personable kid. He works his tail end off, no doubt about that. Obviously we can see the arm is electric. Now is just a little bit more of a consistency thing, just cleaning up some things mechanically.

"He had a couple really, really good starts right off the bat and then I wouldn't say bad starts, but they weren't as good as he wanted them to be — the last 2 or 3. And then he identified something mechanically [Friday] in his bullpen session when I was there watching it.

"I think he's ready to explode, so I think he's chomping at the bit to get up here and if it wasn't for a little bit of rain, you probably would've already seen him. I would expect it to be very soon because he's a special kid."

Now obviously Alzolay has been injured since Gimenez made those statements, but a Grade 1 lat strain isn't too concerning overall. Jon Lester only missed 2 weeks last August for the same injury.

Alzolay could've been the guy the Cubs called on earlier this month for a doubleheader in Cincinnati as they were scheduled for 11 games in 10 days. But a rainout on the final day in Atlanta prevented the need for an extra starter, allowing the Cubs to roll out their regular rotation in Cincy.

Mike Montgomery filled in for Yu Darvish Monday in Pittsburgh and Darvish is eligible to return from the disabled list Saturday in New York if he's healthy enough after a bout of triceps tendinitis.

Alzolay's season has been hot and cold, as Gimenez pointed out. He was 2-1 with a 2.12 ERA, 0.82 WHIP and 14 strikeouts in 17 innings over his first 3 starts.

But things went off the rails from there, as he posted an 8.20 ERA and allowed 35 hits and 17 earned runs in 18.2 innings over his last four starts prior to Tuesday.

Alzolay represents the Cubs' first homegrown starting pitching prospect worth getting excited about under Theo Epstein's front office and was expected to contribute to the big-league rotation as early as this season.

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