{"id":99647,"date":"2025-04-25T18:45:19","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T22:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=99647"},"modified":"2025-04-25T18:45:42","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T22:45:42","slug":"javier-assad-suffers-setback-in-recovery-out-indefinitely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/04\/25\/javier-assad-suffers-setback-in-recovery-out-indefinitely\/","title":{"rendered":"Javier Assad Suffers Setback in Recovery, Out Indefinitely"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span class=\"s1\">Chicago Cubs manager <a  href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/bastianmlb.bsky.social\/post\/3lnnmyxjl4c2m\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Craig Counsell announced<\/a> that right-handed pitcher Javier Assad suffered a Grade 2 strain of his left oblique. The team will shut him down from baseball activity without a timetable for return.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Javier Assad Shut Down With Grade 2 Oblique Strain <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/AzZvcLk8Z4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/AzZvcLk8Z4<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/OR2dGjHEnl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/OR2dGjHEnl<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 MLB Trade Rumors (@mlbtraderumors) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mlbtraderumors\/status\/1915828179601666553?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 25, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Javier Assad Shut Down with No Set Return Date<\/h2>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/02\/25\/javier-assad-oblique-injury-rotation-options\/\" target=\"_self\">Assad first injured<\/a> his oblique at the beginning of spring training. On March 1, the Cubs placed him on the 15-day injured list and announced he wouldn\u2019t be ready for Opening Day.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\">After going through a throwing program and looking ready to return, he exited his second rehab start with Triple-A Iowa on Tuesday after feeling discomfort in his side.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Assad has been one of the more serviceable arms in baseball the past two seasons, splitting time between the bullpen and starting rotation early in his three-year career. In his first full season as a starter last year, Assad threw 147 innings, pitching to a \u00a07-6 record with a 3.77 ERA.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\">The Cubs have gotten off to a blistering 16-10 start with the help of strong pitching, but suffered a major loss to their rotation when <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/04\/13\/cubs-justin-steele-out-2025-season\/\" target=\"_self\">Justin Steele<\/a> was forced to undergo surgery to repair the UCL in his left elbow. <\/span>Chicago said last week they would look to fill Steele\u2019s spot in the rotation internally, and will now have to find another arm to replace Assad.<\/p>\n<p>Colin Rea, who filled in for Steele, will presumably keep his spot in the rotation with Assad out. The Cubs could also look at top pitching prospect Cade Horton to fill in after his strong start in the Triple-A season, along with arms such as Jordan Wicks, Chris Flexen, and newly signed Michael Fulmer.<\/p>\n<p>The team\u2019s hot start could also push the front office to trade for a top-of-the-line starter. The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/04\/14\/cubs-marlins-sandy-alcantara-trade-talks\/\" target=\"_self\">Cubs reportedly showed interest<\/a> in Dylan Cease in the offseason, but could not complete a deal. Miami Marlins ace <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/04\/14\/cubs-marlins-sandy-alcantara-trade-talks\/\" target=\"_self\">Sandy Alc\u00e1ntara<\/a> has also had his name floated in trade talks and could be a name to watch with Chicago.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell announced that right-handed pitcher Javier Assad suffered a Grade 2 strain of his left oblique. The team will shut him down from baseball activity without a timetable for return. Javier Assad Shut Down With Grade 2 Oblique Strain https:\/\/t.co\/AzZvcLk8Z4 pic.twitter.com\/OR2dGjHEnl \u2014 MLB Trade Rumors (@mlbtraderumors) April 25, 2025 Javier Assad [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5469,"featured_media":99658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1071,35],"tags":[3671,5020,3886,1524,28469,5882,5933,88,1818],"class_list":["post-99647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cubs","category-mlb","category-news","tag-cade-horton","tag-chris-flexen","tag-colin-rea","tag-dylan-cease","tag-javier-assad","tag-jordan-wicks","tag-justin-steele","tag-michael-fulmer","tag-sandy-alcantara"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5469"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99647"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99660,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99647\/revisions\/99660"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}