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The Chicago Cubs' bullpen finally appears to be getting healthy, and Friday's activation of Ryan Brasier from the IL after he suffered a hip injury during his final Cactus League appearance in Spring Training confirmed that.
While Cubs fans wait for Jed Hoyer to trade for an impact relief pitcher who can immediately be inserted as the team's closer, the goal for the next few weeks will be for the bullpen to get healthy. Porter Hodge is expected to have a short stay on the IL, and once Shota Imanaga returns to the rotation, it seems that Ben Brown could move to the bullpen.
There will be shifting parts, and the roster decisions that the Cubs put off at the start of the season will need to be made over the next few weeks. As was emphasized during Spring Training, the Cubs don't have many pitchers in their bullpen who have minor-league options remaining. Injuries allowed the Cubs to put off some difficult decisions, but Julian Merryweather is making one of the decisions very easy.
Julian Merryweather's time with the Cubs might be coming to an end
Merryweather was extremely effective to open the season, only allowing 2 runs in his first 10 appearances out of the Cubs' bullpen, but ever since April 27, he has proven to have fallen far from the circle of trust. Since April 27, Merryweather has posted a 10.80 ERA in 8.1 innings pitched. Making things even worse for Merryweather is that during that same stretch, he has issued more walks (8) than he has strikeouts (5).
Merryweather's struggles on Friday night were the main reason why the Cubs needed the heroics of Pete Crow-Armstrong. Merryweather didn't even last a full inning before getting tagged with 2 runs on 3 hits and 1 walk.
If anything, the struggles of Merryweather since April 27 are a continuation of the ineffectiveness Cubs fans saw last season. With Merryweather out of minor-league options, he seems like the likely odd man out once the Cubs make moves to add reinforcements to their bullpen.