{"id":621735,"date":"2026-05-03T21:43:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T21:43:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/621735\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T21:43:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T21:43:25","slug":"cubs-closer-daniel-palencia-off-il-following-oblique-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/621735\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubs closer Daniel Palencia off IL following oblique injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO — The Cubs<\/a> activated closer Daniel Palencia<\/a> from the injured list on Sunday after the right-hander missed the last two weeks with an oblique strain. Palencia, 26, has appeared in five games so far this season and has yet to give up a run while striking out five in five innings pitched.<\/p>\n

Palencia’s return comes not long after setup man Phil Maton<\/a> did the same after missing time with a knee injury. The Cubs have been beset by numerous injuries to their pitching staff in the early portion of the season so getting two late-inning arms back could be a huge boost for them.<\/p>\n

“We’re getting good health news but we’ve gotten good performances out of the bullpen,” manager Craig Counsell said Sunday before facing the Arizona Diamondbacks<\/a>. “We’re getting healthy but we still have to perform. We’ve performed well the last 2.5 weeks.”<\/p>\n

In fact, while Palencia was down, the Cubs went 12-3 while their bullpen ranked 12th in ERA, compiling a 3.54 mark during that timeframe.<\/p>\n

To make room on the roster for Palencia, right-hander Yacksel Rios<\/a> was designated for assignment.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner<\/a> is in the starting lineup on Sunday after coming out of Friday’s game against the Diamondbacks with a stiff neck. He missed Saturday’s contest as well.<\/p>\n

“There are no symptoms,” Counsell said. “He feels really good. And the wind is blowing out (laughing).”<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO — The Cubs activated closer Daniel Palencia from the injured list on Sunday after the right-hander missed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[269506,479,352,143874,363,3,238452,269505,99],"class_list":["post-621735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-269506","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-espn","tag-hoerner-nico","tag-mlb","tag-news","tag-palencia-daniel","tag-rios-yacksel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}