Cubs starter Jameson Taillon goes on injured list, will miss more than a month with calf strain

By Canadian Press on July 4, 2025.

CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago Cubs starter Jameson Taillon may miss “more than a month” with a right calf strain, manager Craig Counsell said Friday after the team placed the veteran right-hander on the injured list.

Taillon is 7-6 with a 4.44 ERA and a mainstay in the NL Central leader’s rotation despite some ups and downs in his ninth major league season. The 33-year-old has lost three straight games, with a 10.66 ERA in that span, after winning five in a row.

Taillon, who had been scheduled to start Saturday, sustained the injury while running after a bullpen session on Thursday.

“He felt a grab yesterday,” Counsell said. “He’s going to miss a pretty significant amount of time.”

The IL move is retroactive to Tuesday. In a corresponding move, the Cubs recalled lefty Jordan Wicks from Triple-A Iowa before their game against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Wicks is expected to work from the bullpen, although 11 of his 12 appearances for Iowa were starts. He was 1-3 with one save and 4.06 ERA with the Triple-A affiliate.

Wicks appeared in two games with the Cubs in April, pitching two innings and going 0-1 with a 13.50 ERA.

“He’s got to come up here and attack the strike zone and get himself in favorable counts … to be effective,” Counsell said.

Taillon’s injury left the Cubs scrambling to plug another hole in their rotation.

Left-hander Justin Steele, an All-Star in 2023 with a 16-5 record, made only four starts this season before undergoing elbow surgery that will sideline him for the rest of 2025.

Lefty Shota Imanaga has won two starts since returning from a hamstring strain that kept him out for seven weeks.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Matt Carlson, The Associated Press