The Cubs are trying to hold a playoff spot with half their pitching staff on the injured list, and this weekend they take that problem to a Marlins team that's been treading water at .500 all summer.
Neither club has a starter locked in for Saturday yet, which tracks for a Cubs staff that's been in triage mode most of the summer. Justin Steele has begun a rehab assignment at Triple-A Iowa working back from a 60-day IL stint, Edward Cabrera is on a throwing program after a blister sidelined him, and Cade Horton is done for the year after Tommy John surgery. That's three rotation pieces gone at once, and it's forced Chicago to piece together starts on the fly.
Miami's pitching depth has taken its own hits. Max Meyer still hasn't been cleared for a throwing program with a neck and rib issue, and Kempner, Snelling and Mazur are all out for the year or close to it. The bullpen's a little brighter — Anthony Bender and Pete Fairbanks, the two arms who were supposed to anchor Miami's late innings, are both back to throwing off a mound after their own injuries, which is the kind of thing that can quietly change a team's late-game math before anyone notices.
The two teams open their series in Miami first, and that game will already be in the books by the time this one starts — so whatever happens Friday shapes who's available, who's rested and who's pitching before Saturday's first pitch at 4:10 PM ET. A Cubs team still hunting playoff position and a Marlins club trying to stay above .500 down the stretch both have real incentive to want that opener to go their way.
Zoom out and the season-long shape favors Chicago — a club comfortably north of .500 fighting for playoff position — over a Miami team that's basically been a coin flip all year at 70-69. But form is a moving target here; both teams still have two games apiece to play before this series even opens, so whatever streak or skid either carries into Miami could look completely different by Saturday.
Dansby Swanson's absence at shortstop is a lesser injury than the pitching losses — he landed on the 10-day IL with an oblique issue, which is the kind of thing that can turn over quickly. Xavier Edwards' hand injury for Miami, suffered in a collision at second base, is fresher and worth tracking, since a shallow middle infield gets shallower fast when its everyday second baseman is out.
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