After Monday’s game, a tough loss, Cubs manager Craig Counsell brought worse news:

Per Craig Counsell, #Cubs Porter Hodge has a left oblique injury and is going to be placed on the IL.

— Taylor McGregor (@Taylor_McGregor) May 20, 2025

To replace Hodge on the 26-man active roster, righthander Ethan Roberts was recalled from Triple-A Iowa. Roberts has a 5.40 ERA (five runs allowed in 8⅓ innings) in nine appearances for the Cubs, though a lot of that high ERA was from his last outing April 26, when he allowed four runs in two innings to the Phillies.

As we all know, oblique injuries are tough to come back from.

Hodge has a 5.12 ERA, 1.500 WHIP and two saves in four opportunities. In 21 appearances, he’s allowed 12 runs (11 earned), but nine of those 11 runs came in just two of the games. He also issued 11 walks in 19⅓ innings this year. Here’s hoping he comes back strong.

In the meantime, I suppose it will be “closer by committee” for the Cubs, though Brad Keller, who has thrown well, could take the role.

Speaking of obliques, Ian Happ has spent the last 10 days on the injured list with a minor oblique issue. He’s missed nine games over that span and fortunately, the Cubs have been able to weather his absence from the lineup with some good hitting from Pete Crow-Armstrong in the leadoff spot, and have gone 6-3 over the nine games.

Happ has been deemed good to go and so before Tuesday’s game, the Cubs activated him from the 10-day injured list and optioned Moises Ballesteros to Triple-A Iowa.

Ballesteros didn’t seem overwhelmed by major-league pitching. Though his offensive numbers weren’t great — .188/.278/.188 (3-for-16) — he showed good pitch judgment by drawing a couple of walks and he didn’t strike out until Monday, his fifth MLB game.

No doubt, Ballesteros — who’s only 21 — will be back.

Happ was batting .269/.364/.381 (43-for-160) with nine doubles, three home runs, 19 RBI and 29 runs scored when he hit the IL. As is often the case with Happ, he got off to a rough start, batting just .209/.303/.279 over his first 20 games. But in the 19 games before the injury, Happ hit .338/.432/.500. Hopefully he can continue that sort of hitting. It seems likely, with Seiya Suzuki playing a decent left field, that Happ might ease back into the lineup as the DH for a few games before returning to the field.

As always, we await developments.