Chicago Cubs: Are there reasons to worry about the rotation?

Chicago Cubs: Nobody gets younger

Age is the main concern with Jon Lester. He is 35 years old and has a ton of miles on that arm, 2,366 regular season innings and 154 in the postseason. Last year we saw moments of velocity drop and mid-season struggles, his 4.39 FIP was much higher than his 3.32 ERA as he demonstrated an ability to work around problems when his stuff wasn’t at its best.

Not to say he was totally lucky last year, he had some very good stretches, but there were certainly times where his final stat-lines looked better than the contact he gave up. It is hard to mad at arguably the best free agent signing in Cubs history, his good has outweighed some rough patches by light years, but fearing further decline for a veteran like him is natural.

Lester is still probably the guy to trust in a big postseason game, (he certainly did his job in the Wild Card game), but the overall numbers here on out probably won’t be as good as they were in his prime. The fact of the matter is, Father Time always prevails, and we will see how it affects Lester in 2019.

Chicago Cubs: Arguably the biggest bug-a-boo for the rotation? Consistency

You can apply consistency, or lack-there-of, to most of the pitchers in the rotation last year. Probably the first name that comes to mind is Jose Quintana. When he was with the White Sox for many years, consistency was his middle name. That has not, however, been the case since coming to the North Side. 

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The overall numbers look mediocre, 4.03 ERA, 4.43 FIP, 1.319 WHIP in 174 1/3 innings. His 3.5 BB/9 was a career-worst.

However, his K/9 (8.2) was higher than it was any season from 2012 to 2016 before coming to the Cubs. In 25 of 32 starts, he gave up four runs or less. A few really bad starts throughout the year ballooned his numbers a bit. The biggest thing for him is to find that consistency he had on the South Side when he was a 3.50 ERA/FIP pitcher.

We can also apply this to Cole Hamels. Yes, it sounds weird but hear me out. Epstein found gold in Hamels last year, who was struggling in Texas. Hamels is a career 3.40 ERA, 3.66 FIP and 1.17 WHIP pitcher (2,553.0 innings). He, like Lester, is 35 now. So age can be a concern, like Lester, but a bigger question is can Hamels work off the mojo he had in 76 1/3 innings he had with the Cubs last year?

It should be expected that he does not put up a sub-3.00 ERA in a full season next year with the Cubs, there will be some evening out. He can still put up some very solid numbers, but how consistent he will be at this age over a full season with this next year is yet to be seen.

Chicago Cubs: This season is very important for Yu Darvish

Right now, Yu Darvish is diligently working to recover from his injuries last season. After only pitching in 40 innings in 2018, many wonder what the Cubs will get out of the hard-throwing righty. Will he be fully healthy for spring ball? How effective will he be?

This is the not only the biggest question for him but the biggest question for that starting rotation period. The man who from 2012-2017 sported an 11.0 K/9 and 3.42 ERA has tons of talent when he is fully healthy and him being that for the Cubs is absolutely huge.

Injures, of course, can be a factor for anyone at any given time, but this is already an issue being worked on. Darvish has been documenting his workouts recently on Twitter. Hopefully, a year removed from a full season workload, the righty can get back to dominating opponents in 2019.

Chicago Cubs: Is Kyle Hendricks the one to worry about least?

You probably thought I’d drop Kyle Hendricks be under “consistency”, right? Well he probably could be based on last year. However, it is worth noting Hendricks made a few adjustments mid-last year and looked like the man who had a 2.94 ERA, 3.43 FIP and 1.098 WHIP from 2014-2017.

Will he have that same problem in 2019? Who knows, anything can happen in the end.

But considering he is not yet 30 years old, his track record and his style of pitching, Hendricks seems like the safest bet on being the most effective guy in the rotation. It would probably be more concerning if he struggled throughout all 2018, but he didn’t.

Only time will tell how effective these guys are in 2019. These are just some honest worries, but we have all seen how they can perform. Now, it’s just a matter of living up to their abilities.