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

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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