Joe Maddon Confirms Jon Lester’s Replacement In Rotation, David Kaplan Tells Yu Darvish To Drop A Pair

Earlier today the Cubs officially placed Jon Lester on the 10-day injured list with a hamstring injury. Lester left in the third inning of Monday’s home opener against the Pirates after a trip around the bases.

Joe Maddon confirmed that Tyler Chatwood will replace Lester in the rotation. Lester’s next scheduled start was set for Sunday against the Angels. That will now be Chatwood making his first start of the season.

Not exactly the guy you want to see filling in for the Cubs, but the positive news is that Maddon said the team can go without a fifth starter for a couple weeks.

So, Chatwood might only have to make one start in place of Lester.

As for Lester’s recovery, the Cubs are going to take the cautious route with the veteran and won’t rush him back.

The Cubs also called up left-hander Tim Collins from Triple-A to take Lester’s spot on the 25-man roster. It is possible that the Cubs make another bullpen move on Sunday, when Chatwood makes the start.

As far as tonight’s game, it’s going to be a cold one. The Cubs had the option to move up one of Wednesday or Thursday’s games against the Pirates to Tuesday with bad weather conditions in the forecast, but they didn’t.

Anyway, it’s going to be cold and ESPN’s Jesse Rogers dropped a little nugget about Yu Darvish.

Remember, that’s just Rogers looking up some stats and seeing an early trend with Darvish when it’s under 50 degrees.

So, naturally, David Kaplan took a swipe at Darvish and tweeted that the Cubs pitcher should “drop a pair.”

Be a bigger meatball, you can’t.

And no one is still sure who Kaplan is yelling at here. What did Jesse Rogers do wrong? I mean, because there’s simply no reason Kaplan is seriously bitching at Darvish because you know, it’s not like Darvish has ever complained about the cold weather.

Ahh, it’s going to be great when the Cubs finally have their own network next year.