{"id":593460,"date":"2026-02-26T05:26:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T05:26:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/593460\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T05:26:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T05:26:26","slug":"chicago-cubs-offseason-addition-out-for-months-with-knee-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/593460\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Cubs offseason addition out for months with knee injury"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Chicago Cubs are looking to solidify their 26-man roster, as the early portion of Spring Training is underway. There are a lot of different options, but one player is off the list due to injury. Let\u2019s take a deeper dive into who it is and what the severity of the injury is.<\/p>\n<p>Tyler Austin is out indefinitely with a knee injury for the Chicago Cubs<br \/>\n<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-156397\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%20820%20600'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" alt=\"Chicago Cubs, Tyler Austin, Cubs News, Cubs Rumors\" width=\"820\" height=\"600\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/USATSI_10838192_168400517_lowres-820x600.jpg\"\/>May 15, 2018; Washington, DC, USA; New York Yankees first baseman Tyler Austin (26) hits an RBI sacrifice fly against the Washington Nationals during the fifth inning at Nationals Park. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicitysports.com\/chicago-cubs-sign-this-former-first-round-pick-to-minor-league-contract\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cubs<\/a> were hoping that first baseman Tyler Austin could be a backup option at multiple positions this season, but it appears they will have to wait for him to see the field. Manager Craig Counsell announced on Wednesday that Austin underwent knee surgery on Tuesday and will miss \u201cmonths\u201d. He required right patella tendon debridement surgery after his knee did not respond well to workouts.<\/p>\n<p>Austin has not played in the majors since the 2019 season. Over his career, he has played in 209 games and posted a .743 OPS with 33 home runs, 91 RBI, and 75 runs scored throughout four seasons. The 34-year-old\u2019s injury does not have a timeline to return to the team.<\/p>\n<p>It appears that rookie Moises Ballesteros will begin taking reps at first base and fulfill backup duties for first baseman Michael Busch. Counsell <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/news\/tyler-austin-knee-injury-with-cubs\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">spoke about his options<\/a> on Wednesday, including prospect Jonathon Long.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou kind of go through the exercise in Spring Training. Of like backup plans on top of backup plans. You just can\u2019t be covered, ideally, in every single situation. This may change, where we have [an area] we\u2019re very deep to a place we\u2019re not very deep. But Johnny Long is still a good option. Whether he\u2019s with the big league team or whether he\u2019s in Triple-A, he\u2019s a day away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It will be interesting to see how long the recovery for Austin is and if he will make the big league team at any point this year. It is also intriguing to see which player will take his perceived roster spot out of Spring Training.<\/p>\n<p>                    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"810\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201200%20810'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" alt=\"Chicago Cubs: Cade Horton gets top 25 ranking for players under age 25\" class=\"post-image\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/USATSI_26843711-scaled-e1772039187486.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                        Chicago Cubs: Cade Horton gets top 25 ranking for players under age 25<br \/>\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicitysports.com\/chicago-cubs-cade-horton-top-25-list\/\" class=\"read-more\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\tFor More Great Chicago Sports Content<\/p>\n<p>        <a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLGY9QowgMXbAg?hl=en-US&amp;gl=US&amp;ceid=US%3Aen\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"349\" height=\"108\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%20349%20108'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770898591_673_image-10.png\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Get the latest Chicago sports news, analysis, and breaking stories on the Bears, Bulls, Blackhawks, Cubs, White Sox, Sky, and more! Tap the star to add us to your favorites on <a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLGY9QowgMXbAg?hl=en-US&amp;gl=US&amp;ceid=US%3Aen\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Google News<\/a>, so you never miss a story on your favorite Chicago teams.<\/p>\n<p>Follow us on Twitter at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/chicitysports23\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@chicitysports23<\/a> for more great content. We appreciate you taking time to read our articles. To interact more with our community and keep up to date on the latest in Chicago sports news, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/chicagosports247\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">JOIN OUR FREE FACEBOOK GROUP by CLICKING HERE <\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Cubs are looking to solidify their 26-man roster, as the early portion of Spring Training is&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2399],"tags":[5,138,24,4245,576,161,4,7115],"class_list":["post-593460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-cubs","tag-baseball","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-chicagocubs","tag-craig-counsell","tag-cubs","tag-mlb","tag-tyler-austin"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116135276366702483","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}