It\u2019s too early for trade rumors to start, but the San Francisco Giants dealt catcher Patrick Bailey to the Cleveland Guardians on Saturday, so pulling off a deal is not impossible.<\/p>\n
In this age of tweeting for tweet\u2019s sake, rumors are bound to pop up, including an erroneous report Friday that the Cubs had talks with the New York Mets about Freddy Peralta, which was picked up on mlbtraderumors.com before the team quickly shot it down.<\/p>\n
Column: Ordinary day in an extraordinary run for Chicago Cubs, who post their 2nd 10-game winning streak<\/a><\/p>\n The report was retracted in a separate tweet, but that didn\u2019t stop the internet, which never sleeps. It was picked up by aggregating websites focusing on Cubs news and discussed again Saturday on the team\u2019s flagship radio station, WSCR-AM 670. Views of the original tweet and the retraction reached almost 600,000 as of Saturday night.<\/p>\n The tweet worked, even if it was wrong, the story of our times.<\/p>\n The Cubs did not respond to an inquiry Saturday. But with almost three months left until the trade deadline, they probably can count on dealing with more of the same kind of stuff \u2014 whether the rumors are valid or not.<\/p>\n Either way, the good news is that Boyd\u2019s injury was deemed relatively minor, and he\u2019s already working his way back. The hope is Boyd can return to the rotation sometime in June after incurring the freak knee injury while playing with his kids.<\/p>\n Jameson Taillon, who starts Sunday in the series finale against the Texas Rangers, spoke with Boyd and said he\u2019s in good spirits and has been getting treatment at Wrigley Field during the trip.<\/p>\n \u201cHe takes incredible care of his body,\u201d Taillon said Saturday. \u201cHe invests a lot of money in his recovery and his diet. He\u2019s a great dad and was just playing with his kids. He was like \u2018That\u2019s how I\u2019m going to go down?\u2019 But he\u2019ll be back, and he\u2019ll be better and will help us.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the combo of Ben Brown and Javier Assad, who combined for 7 2\/3 scoreless innings in Friday\u2019s 7-1 win over the Rangers, could reduce Hoyer\u2019s urgency to make a move that would cost the Cubs any top prospects.<\/p>\n Manager Craig Counsell said Saturday that he needed to be careful with how he stretched out Brown and wasn\u2019t sure how often he could use both in the same game to eat up the bulk of the innings. With the Cubs\u2019 injury luck, Counsell basically has to go into prevent-defense mode.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere we\u2019re at with starting pitching right now, unfortunately you always have to look to \u2018What\u2019s next?\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to have guys stretched out just to handle the innings if something else happens.\u201d<\/p>\n The foursome of Shota Imanaga, Taillon, Edward Cabrera and Collin Rea doesn\u2019t exactly resemble \u201cMaddux-Smoltz-Glavine,\u201d the core of the great Atlanta Braves rotations of the Bobby Cox<\/a> era. They have only one All-Star appearance among them \u2014 Imanaga\u2019s selection in 2024, when he pitched for the National League at Globe Life Field.<\/p>\n But entering Saturday\u2019s game in Texas, the Cubs were a major-league best 27-12 with a 20-3 since April 14, with a pair of 10-game winning streaks for the first time since 1935. The starters were a combined 11-2 with a 3.51 ERA in the 23-game stretch, sixth-best in baseball.<\/p>\n Imanaga is 4-1 with a 2.01 ERA in his five starts in the stretch, followed by Taillon (2-0, 3.80 ERA), Rea (2-1, 4.35 ERA) and Cabrera (2-0, 4.38). Boyd (1-0, 5.52 ERA) struggled the most before his knee injury.<\/p>\n Cabrera, who took the mound Saturday in search of the Cubs\u2019 11th straight win, allowed three earned runs or fewer in all seven of his previous starts.<\/p>\n Fans always want their teams to add pitching, no matter the cost. Do Cubs players have the same attitude?<\/p>\n \u201cWe all know what our goals are here,\u201d Taillon said. \u201cSo if there is a way to make our team better, I think every single player would answer with a resounding yes if it would make the team better.<\/p>\n \u201cBut we talked all spring about the depth we have, and Ben Brown is out there throwing four pitches (Friday) night. He\u2019s added a sinker (to his four-seamer and knuckle-curve) and is trusting his changeup a little bit. I saw a dude who is evolving in front of our eyes and matured a lot. You feel good every time he\u2019s been out there.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd Javy Assad, there\u2019s no ego. He\u2019s been put in some tough spots the last couple years, been sent down because he has options and the way the roster management has worked. He\u2019s been a pro about everything and works his tail off and competes. In my eyes he\u2019s a big-league starting pitcher. It\u2019s a really nice luxury to have.\u201d<\/p>\n The one certainty is that Counsell is not using the Cubs\u2019 hot streak as a reason to stick with the status quo. He started Michael Conforto<\/a> again at DH on Saturday over Mois\u00e9s Ballesteros<\/a>, who cooled off on the last homestand, hitting .091 (2-for-22). Conforto was 8-for-17 (.471) with two home runs in his last eight games.<\/p>\n \u201cMichael, he\u2019s been on it,\u201d Counsell said. \u201cAnd Mo has not been on it. So that makes it a little bit easier. If I could\u2019ve played 10 guys, I would\u2019ve played 10 guys.\u201d<\/p>\n Counsell said he didn\u2019t have to talk with Ballesteros to explain the decision-making, and that players understand when someone else is producing more for them. After all, it\u2019s not Little League.<\/p>\n There wasn\u2019t much to worry about on a 90-degree night in Texas. The air-conditioned ballpark made everything comfortable inside, and the Cubs were as hot as they\u2019ve been in 91 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON, Tex. \u2014 Do the Chicago Cubs need another starter? That\u2019s one of the questions facing team President…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151,104862,32457,105114,104881,57480,105113,104860,105112,105115,105116,48645],"class_list":["post-286343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news","tag-ben-brown","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-collin-rea","tag-craig-counsell","tag-edward-cabrera","tag-jameson-taillon","tag-javier-assad","tag-matthew-boyd","tag-michael-conforto","tag-moises-ballesteros","tag-shota-imanaga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Cubs](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778372528_256_CTC-Z-CUBS-TEX.jpg\")
Cubs right-hander Ben Brown, making his first start of the season, delivers against the Rangers during the first inning at Globe Life Field on May 8, 2026, in Arlington, Texas. Brown didn’t allow a hit in four scoreless innings in the Cubs’ 7-1 win, their 10th straight. (Ron Jenkins\/Getty)<\/p>\n![\"Shortstop](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/CTC-Z-CUBS-TEX_4f6c69.jpg\")
Shortstop Dansby Swanson, left, and first baseman Michael Busch high-five after the Cubs’ 7-1 win over the Rangers on Friday, May 8, 2026, in Arlington, Texas. (Julio Cortez\/AP)<\/p>\n