Chicago Cubs relief pitcher Daniel Palencia reacts after an injury during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals in Chicago, Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
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The loss of Daniel Palencia from the Cubs’ bullpen has put their playoff status on shakier ground.
Considering the fact that the Cubs lost one of their stop starting pitchers in Justin Steele all the way back in early April, it is somewhat surprising that they are so firmly in the playoff picture in mid-September.
As things currently stand, the Cubs are in line for the top wild card spot and would host that three-game series at home at Wrigley Field. But other injuries are threatening to change that status.
Outfielders Pete Crow-Armstrong and Kyle Tucker had both been out for several games – Crow-Armstrong with a bothersome knee that he’d fouled a pitch off of, and Tucker with a balky calf – until the former was able to return to the Cubs lineup on Monday night against the Braves. Crow-Armstrong was back in manager Craig Counsell’s batting order, but only as a designated hitter. He has provided the Cubs with a great deal of value with this defense, even as he’s slowed down at the plate in the second half of the season.
Tucker is expected to return on Tuesday, which should be good news. After his prolonged cold stretch at the plate that had gotten bad enough that he’d been benched for a series, Tucker had finally started heating up. He’d batted .327 with 4 home runs in his last 15 games before injuring his calf.
“He got pretty darned close to full speed,” Counsell told reporters in Atlanta on Monday. “[He should avoid the IL]
as long as we’re having days where we’re moving forward and getting closer, and that’s what we’ve felt the last two days especially. We’re in a pretty good place.”
But as the Cubs are getting healthy again on offense, they’ve lost their closer, and probably for the remainder of the season. Daniel Palencia left Sunday’s 6-3 loss to the Nationals after giving up 5 runs with a right posterior shoulder injury, and Counsell was still unsure the next day whether Palencia could return before the end of the regular season.
Counsell told reporters that the Cubs planned to take the week to treat Palencia’s injury and then assess things again on Friday when the team returns to Chicago to host the Rays at Wrigley.
But in all likelihood, the Cubs are going to be without Palencia for a while, and possibly for the remainder of the regular season and playoffs. That’s a tough loss, considering Palencia has notched 22 saves after taking over the closer role several weeks into the season.
So in the meantime, the Cubs will have to navigate the final weeks of the season without him, while hoping they can keep playing well enough to maintain a hold on the top wild card spot.
“It’s as simple as trying to get 27 outs. And however that lines up, it lines up,” Counsell said of handling Palencia’s absence. “[The other relievers] don’t have to step up. They just have to continue doing what they’re doing. That’s the answer. The other guys in the bullpen, just keep doing what you’re doing.”
The Cubs will have to hope that works. After looking like easy favorites to win the National League Central two months into the season, the Cubs have kept up a winning pace above .500, but the Brewers got red hot and buried the Cubs’ chances at winning the division.
Still, Counsell and the Cubs have kept their sights set on continuing to play well enough to hang onto a playoff spot while not getting in trouble for looking past the regular season series that are still in front of them.
“This point of the season is a little bit of a trap in that it’s like, you are close, but 20 games is also a lot of results,” Counsell told reporters on Sunday. “The best thing you try to do is keep your eye on the day to day [and] not get caught up in forward thinking.”
He said those words just hours before Palencia got injured, and the closer’s absence will mean that Counsell has to approach the upcoming games with an even more deliberate focus. Counsell said on Sunday that he does not expect any solidity to the Cubs’ playoff status to come until at least the last week of the regular season – he cited the series at home against the Mets on September 23-25 as a time he has in mind – and that it could very well take until the last series of the season.
Between now and then, Counsell is left with the task of utilizing his bullpen in a way to cover the three outs that used to be Palencia’s. The silver lining for Cubs fans is that this kind of thing is one of Counsell’s strong suits. The question will be whether he can do it well enough to preserve the Cubs’ postseason standing.