Cubs play it safe by pushing Daniel Palencia to IL as postseason nears

The Chicago Cubs have placed Daniel Palencia on the 15-day IL after the closer left his Sunday appearance against the Washington Nationals with an apparent shoulder injury. While speaking with reporters after the game, Craig Counsell suggested there was a chance that the 25-year-old flamethrower may avoid the IL entirely.

“Danny felt some tightness in the posterior right shoulder,” Counsell said. “Docs have looked at him. That’s all we have right now. Probably let him just calm down a little bit and see how we are in a couple of days, a day or so.”

Taking Palencia's place on the 26-man roster is Ethan Roberts. Roberts has served as an up-and-down arm for the Cubs this season, posting an ERA of 6.00 through 10 appearances.

Cubs move closer Daniel Palencia to IL to avoid risking injury flare-up

The silver lining is that Palencia now has some added time to reset. Even before his injury on Sunday, Palencia had struggled during the second half of the season. Over his last 16 and 2/3 innings pitched, Palencia has an ERA of 5.94 with opposing hitters slashing .347/.397/.556 against him.

As the Cubs map out their bullpen ahead of the postseason, correcting the recent struggles of Palencia was the priority. With the IL stint, Palencia will be sidelined for the next two weeks. That would place his return shortly before the start of the playoffs, allowing him some time to re-establish himself as the team's closer.

With Palencia in his first season as the team's closer, there was some risk involved at the trade deadline when the Cubs avoided the flurry of activity that saw multiple high-leverage relief pitchers on the move.

Instead, the Cubs opted for smaller additions of Andrew Kittredge and Taylor Rogers, and neither has had the type of success that would make them a logical replacement for Palencia. As it stands, Brad Keller seems like the natural option to take over as the interim closer.

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