Chicago Cubs will deploy a five-man rotation moving forward

Chicago Cubs: He got his shot – and now, might lose it

Earlier this season, Mike Montgomery made his desire to start perfectly clear. When Yu Darvish hit the shelf with an arm injury, he got his shot – and has, by and large, made the most of it.

In 11 starts this year, the southpaw put up a 3.50 ERA and 1.297 WHIP. Those numbers clearly outshine his work as a reliever, where he owns a 5.33 ERA and 1.461 WHIP in 19 appearances spanning 25 1/3 innings. From that sense, keeping him in the rotation over Chatwood makes a ton of sense.

But when you take into account the woeful performance of the Cubs’ lone ‘long’ lefty, Brian Duensing (7.18 ERA, .084 K/BB ratio in 41 appearances), the idea of moving Monty back to the pen looks awfully appealing.

Another factor that seems to be weighing on Theo Epstein? Montgomery’s workload. Last year, he tossed a career-high 130 2/3 innings. He’s already accumulated 87 frames this year – with a full two months left in the season.

"“We’re one injury away from being in a really tough spot,” he said. “Some of the injuries we’ve had, some of the struggles we’ve had in certain areas and Monty’s innings becoming an issue as you go deeper and deeper in the season, we felt it would be irresponsible not to add one starting pitcher. We knew that was something we were going to do in some form or another.”"

So do the Cubs try and save Montgomery for October and put him back in a type of swing role?