Thursday's scheduled Guardians starter against the Cubs placed on leave by MLB

The Chicago Cubs are looking to head into the holiday weekend with a sweep in the rematch of the 2016 World Series - and the Cleveland Guardians' task of preventing that from happening just got a bit harder after their scheduled starter, Luis Ortiz, was placed on non-disciplinary paid leave by the league while being investigated by MLB for an undisclosed matter.

We won't speculate on the investigation, but this impacts Thursday night's matchup at Wrigley Field. Cleveland announced that left-hander Joey Cantillo will start in his place - and that has ramifications on how Craig Counsell builds his lineup.

As we know, Counsell has a strong aversion to letting first baseman Michael Busch start against southpaws. He's primarily leaned on veteran Justin Turner in those contests, taking a major offensive contributor out of the equation in the early innings. Busch enters Thursday with a 148 wRC+ that ranks third among all MLB first basemen - and second in the NL only to Pete Alonso.

Luis Ortiz placed on leave; Cubs will face Joey Cantillo on Thursday night

As of Thursday morning, you assume that will be the case on Thursday. But it's worth noting that Cantillo has been stretched out to only around 60 pitches. This could be a chance for Counsell to let Busch start against a lefty because he's not going to be working deep into this ballgame.

The 25-year-old former 16th-round pick has pitched exclusively out of the bullpen with Cleveland this season, making 21 appearances and finishing 10 games, working to a 3.81 ERA, 4.33 FIP and 1.376 WHIP. He's made four starts at Triple-A, allowing five earned runs in 11 2/3 innings of work - so he's not unaccustomed to starting a game.

Looking big-picture, the Cubs have mashed left-handed pitching this season, posting a .743 OPS that ranks second in the NL. MLB RBI leader Seiya Suzuki has a 1.001 OPS and is slugging .621 against southpaws. All-Star Kyle Tucker, despite the left-on-left matchup, is slashing .272/.364/.515 and second baseman Nico Hoerner has an OPS north of .900 across 74 at-bats against lefties.

Chicago closes out the series against Cleveland behind right-hander Cade Horton on Thursday and welcomes the division rival Cardinals to Wrigley Field for Fourth of July weekend. The Cubs are holding onto first place in the NL Central, but will look to add to that lead in the final 10 games of the first half.