Matt Garza To Be Activated, Start Against Reds Monday

Matt Garza of the Cubs, who has been on the 15-day disabled list with elbow trouble, will be activated Monday night to pitch against the Reds in Cincinnati. Unusually for a disabled pitcher these days, Garza has not had a rehab assignment during his DL stint, and in fact, had resisted going on the DL in the first place, saying that if this type of discomfort had occurred during a pennant push or the playoffs, he would have pitched through it.

Due to the vagaries of the schedule, Garza is going to wind up with consecutive starts against the Reds; the Cubs were in Cincinnati less than three weeks ago and Garza started against them on May 17, his last start before going on the DL. In that game, his own throwing error helped lead to three unearned runs and the Cubs lost.

Per tweet from cubs.com’s Carrie Muskat, the Cubs have optioned lefthanded reliever Scott Maine to Triple-A Iowa to make room for Garza on the 25-man roster.

Matt Garza To Throw Side Sessions Rather Than Start Against Cardinals

Per ESPN Chicago, the Cubs’ Matt Garza will not be facing the Cardinals this weekend, as previously hoped. Instead, he will throw a side session on Wednesday and another one Saturday in St. Louis.

The Cubs have in the past underestimated the amount of time injured pitchers will be out, and this appears to be no exception. The injury to Garza, though minor, has forced Cubs GM Jim Hendry to scull through waiver lists to fill his rotation. This news likely means more starts for Doug Davis, who faces the Astros on Wednesday, and Rodrigo Lopez, who faced them on Monday.

The trouble for the Cubs is that their next trip goes through contending teams in the Cardinals, Reds and Phillies. Nine different Cubs have already had significant DL time this year. Only Carlos Zambrano and Ryan Dempster from the team’s Opening Day rotation have not missed a start so far in 2011.

Matt Garza Injury: Out With Elbow Contusion, Replaced By Randy Wells

Chicago Cubs starter Matt Garza missed his scheduled start Sunday night against the Red Sox, but management was hoping he would miss just the one. Alas, the elbow's still barking so Garza's going to miss more time.

According to a tweet from Carrie Muskat:

#cubs put matt garza on 15 day DL with right elbow contusion. Randy wells is here and will start sat

The news about Wells is good, anyway. Of course, Wells was going to rejoin the rotation regardless, and Garza's absence means a reprieve for Casey Coleman and his 6.03 ERA. Not to mention Doug Davis, who's not fared well in his two starts since replacing James Russell in the rotation. The Cubs need to get Garza back and they need to (ideally) get Andrew Cashner back, especially if Davis doesn't find at least a semblance of his once-adequate talents.

In the short term, Garza's DL stint is back-dated and he shouldn't be out for much longer.