Brujan’s Knee and Miller’s Hip

When making the final “Domestic” opening day roster decisions, I picture Jed Hoyer looking down through the dugout to figure out who is going to be “injured” to start the season, similar to Jimmy Conway looking across the bar to decide who he needed to whack from the Lufthansa heist crew in Goodfellas.

Of course, there are varying degrees of injuries, some that players play through and others that require a trip to the IL. Both Miller’s hip and Brujan’s knee seem like the kinds of injuries (from afar) that they could have played through. However, given the roster constraints the Cubs were dealing with (pick 2 from Brown, Keller, Pearson and ? AND Workman vs Brujan), it was more convenient for the cubs to put those two players on the IL.

I would expect the IL for the Cubs to stay busy throughout the season, as players get minor injuries during the course of the year. This will allow them to maintain the necessary depth to deal with a ore serious injury that could come along. This would most likely to include more fringe-y players, especially in the bullpen.

There will need to be a 40-man roster decision to allow Keller to be on the roster, so one of the players sent to Iowa will be put on waivers. My early guess would be Gavin Hollowell or Caleb Kilian.