Cubs place ailing reliever Hunter Harvey on injured list

CHICAGO — The Cubs placed righty reliever Hunter Harvey on the injured list Sunday due to inflammation in his right triceps. Harvey, 31, appeared in only four games before going down as the team was cautious with him because he has been injured often in his career.

“He just wasn’t recovering well,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said Sunday morning. “We’re trying to get stuff before it gets too bad here. And hopefully it’s just a little bit of soreness and triceps, and we can get rid of it in two to three weeks and move on.”

Harvey gave up three runs in four innings before being placed on the IL. He has appeared in 50 games in a single season just once in his eight-year career. He signed one-year, $6 million contract with the Cubs as they pegged him as a late-inning reliever. In his first month of the season, he saw action in just four games, and now he lands on the injured list.

“I think that rolls into trying to be conservative here, absolutely,” Counsell said. “But the way he was recovering and kind of the usage, it just has sent up some red flags that we’ve got to be careful here and pause.”

Harvey joins righty Phil Maton on the shelf. Maton is down with a knee issue after also signing a free agent deal with the Cubs. The losses are no small issues for a team that has gotten off to a slow start this season.

The Cubs called up lefty Charlie Barnes to take Harvey’s spot on the roster. Barnes pitched in the KBO from 2022 to 2024 before signing a minor league deal with Chicago in January. He last pitched in the big leagues for the Twins in 2021 before going overseas.

Chicago has struggled in April, dropping the first two games of its home weekend series against the Pirates. The Cubs have failed mostly at the plate, where first baseman Michael Busch is 0 for his past 30 at-bats and isn’t in the starting lineup Sunday.

“It’s been pretty frustrating, but just putting one foot in front of the other each day and just continue to work,” Busch said. “[I] started to feel a little better as of late, but obviously not getting the results I want.”

Busch couldn’t point to one thing that’s holding him back after being arguably the Cubs best overall hitter last season, when he hit 34 home runs with a .261 batting average. After earning three hits on Opening Day, Busch saw his average dip to .118 before being pinch-hit for in Saturday’s contest against the Pirates. Now, he’ll get a full day off.

“This is just trying to give a reset to a player that’s a really good hitter, that probably [needs] just a mental break a little bit,” Counsell said. “He’s just got stuck a little bit and is not having any success and not getting any results.”

Busch said that his timing might be off a little but that there isn’t any one kind of pitch holding him back. He’s simply not hitting anything with much authority.

“Just having days where [I’m] swinging at pitches out of the zone, and that’s never really a recipe for success,” he said.