Duane Underwood Recalled, Kimbrel to IL with Right Knee Inflammation

According to a report from Jesse Rogers, the Cubs have recalled righty reliever Duane Underwood Jr. from Triple-A. The corresponding move was “unclear” as of post time, so we’ll have to wait and see on that.

Just mentioned on ESPN 1000 that Duane Underwood has been recalled for the Cubs. Unclear what the corresponding move is.

— Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) August 5, 2019

You may recall that Underwood came up briefly when Pedro Strop first went on the IL with left neck tightness, but then headed right back after the Cubs acquired David Phelps. Tyler Chatwood went three innings for an unconventional save Sunday, after which we learned he was under the weather, so could he perhaps be down for a while.

Update: Jesse Rogers has replied to multiple people on Twitter to say that he believes Craig Kimbrel is going to the IL, but that he wants to be sure. The fact that he’s comfortable even saying that much is not a great sign. Maybe he’s just gotten whatever bug is going around and this is just super precautionary.

I believe that’s true. Just want to be sure

— Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) August 5, 2019

Update 2: Jesse Rogers now confirming the above, that Craig Kimbrel hitting the IL is indeed the corresponding move. Ugh. Knee inflammation is certainly preferred to an arm issue, but I think we all could have lived without this news. Rogers goes on to say that Kimbrel felt an issue with the knee in his last outing on Saturday against Milwaukee.

Craig Kimbrel to the IL with a knee issue. Duane Underwood recalled.

— Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) August 5, 2019

Kimbrel said he could have pitched through it and would have if it were October, but they're just being smart about it. He thinks he'll be good to go after the 10 days (they can retro this to yesterday).

— Sahadev Sharma (@sahadevsharma) August 5, 2019