The Chicago Cubs announced their pitching plans Wednesday for the series that restarts their season: Colin Rea starts Friday night’s opener against the Minnesota Twins at Wrigley Field, followed by Matthew Boyd on Saturday afternoon and Shota Imanaga on Sunday.
The Cubs resume play at 54-42, five games behind the Brewers in the NL Central and holding the National League’s top wild-card position. They won their final two games before the break while Milwaukee dropped three straight, and the August 3 trade deadline arrives in two and a half weeks.
Rea, 7-5 with a 4.75 ERA across 19 appearances and 15 starts, takes the opener. Boyd has been effective when available — 5-1 with a 4.50 ERA and 47 strikeouts in 46 innings — but injuries held him to nine first-half starts. Imanaga is the one trending upward: 5-8 with a 4.17 ERA and 105 strikeouts in 108 innings on the season, he has posted a 2.81 ERA over his last six starts covering 32 innings. Stacking Boyd and Imanaga back-to-back also lines up two left-handers against a Minnesota lineup that has hit lefties to a 94 wRC+ this season, per FanGraphs.
Bleacher Nation reports Jameson Taillon is expected back before the deadline, which would reinforce the staff from within. The schedule gives this rotation an immediate test: after Minnesota, the Cubs host the Tigers for three, then play seven straight on the road — three in Pittsburgh, four in St. Louis — leading directly into deadline week. How the rotation holds through that stretch will shape what the front office pays for at the deadline.
For fantasy managers, Imanaga is the confident start of the three on the strength of his six-start run; Boyd is a reasonable play whose innings may stay capped coming off a light first half; Rea is a deeper-league option even at home.
