MIAMI — Right-hander Caleb Kilian is set to make his 2023 debut on Saturday, when the Cubs plan to recall him from Triple-A to start against the Marlins.
Kilian was the obvious choice to fill the hole in the rotation left after Jameson Taillon (strained left groin) landed on the 15-day injured list last week. Javier Assad filled in last Thursday and isn’t yet eligible to be recalled unless he’s replacing a player headed to the IL or serving as the 27th man in a doubleheader. And Kilian has strung together strong starts in his last two outings, surrendering just one run in the two combined.
“Having him come up to the big leagues last year and face some adversity, and have to go back to the drawing board a bit, and seeing his focus and his desire to get better and make certain corrections that that he deemed necessary to put himself back in position to potentially have success again, I think it’s been extraordinary to watch,” vice president of player development Jared Banner said. “And excited about his future.”
Kilian revealed in spring training that, though he didn’t want to blame his performance last year on injury, he’d dealt with tendonitis in his left knee. The discomfort affected his mechanics. Clearly searching, Kilian posted a 10.32 ERA in three major-league starts last season to kick off his MLB career.
“What we’re seeing is a completely healthy, completely confident Caleb that had a wildly productive offseason,” Cubs senior vice president of pitching Craig Breslow told the Sun-Times this spring. “... Just getting healthy and identifying the two or three keys for him has paid huge dividends.
“And you just see the way that he carries himself — in addition to the stuff being crisper and [him] having a great camp — the way that he’s walking around, it’s like he’s confident he belongs again, which is a great thing to see.”
Taillon on track
Taillon told the Sun-Times he’s still confident he’ll be able to keep this IL stint close to the minimum.
“I don’t know where I’ll pencil back in necessarily,” Taillon said. “But just by being able to keep the arm moving, playing catch, it really wasn’t that much downtime, so I feel like I’m still in game shape.”
He hopes to throw off the mound a couple times on this road trip. Then, the Cubs will evaluate his recovery and decide next steps. Taillon does not expect he’ll need a rehab start before returning from the IL. He’s eligible to be reinstated as early as next week.
“Right now, you want to make sure you properly heal it and build something that can last,” Taillon said. “I can still make 26 more starts this year, so you want to make sure that we’re in position for that.”
In other injury news
Right-hander Kyle Hendricks’ line in his first rehab game with Triple-A Iowa — 1 2⁄3 innings, six hits, six runs, one walk, three strikeouts — wasn’t clean, but the Cubs said he came out of the outing feeling good. Hendricks (strained right shoulder) will stay on a normal five-day starter’s schedule.
Reliever Codi Heuer (Tommy John surgery) is scheduled to throw another inning in a simulated game Saturday at the Cubs’ spring training complex in Arizona.
