Mystery solved…Hoby Milner is in Iowa. He was having a solid season for the Cubs as a reliever, when on June 26th he suffered appendicitis, requiring an emergency appendectomy.
It happened at a time when the Cubs had already lost several pitchers to injuries, and the bullpen was extremely thin. It was particularly difficult to lost Milner, as he had pitched in 38 of the Cubs first 82 games at the time, which led the team.
His numbers were not spectacular, but a 3.53 ERA and 1.21 WHIP were good. He did have a 4.54 FIP and a low strikeout percentage at 12.1%, which was the worst of his career. He was also about the same against left and right-handed hitters, where he was expected to dominate lefties with his side-arm delivery.
The fact that he was not dominant against lefties might explain why the Cubs have decided to leave him in the minor leagues for his post-injury rehab assignment for the maximum amount of time.
Minor league rehab stints are typically only a couple of weeks, which is what we saw with Daniel Palencia. Sometimes, after elbow surgery, the rehab time will be extended to allow the pitcher more time to get ready. This is what we will see with Shelby Miller.
While technically, Milner did have surgery, appendectomies do not typically require this many rehab appearances. Current Cub, Trent Thornton, only made 2 rehab appearances after an appendectomy last season missing a grand total of 1 month.
So how has Hoby Milner been doing, down on the farm? He’s pitched 9.2 innings, and has a 2.79 ERA and 1.35 WHIP, with 2 walks an 9 strikeouts. His 11 hits allowed are concerning, but not a major red-flag. So why is he not back in the majors yet?
Similar to their decision about send Javier Assad back to AAA, despite his excellent pitching, they must be deeming it more important to keep pitching depth in the organization instead of bring Milner back up to the majors.
If they bring up Milner now, they risk losing Aaron Civale or Caleb Thielbar. Instead, by keeping him in the minors, they can wait on any major decisions in case there is an injury. And they will get 2 roster spots (one for a pitcher) on September 1st.
Unfortunately, because Milner started his rehab assignment on July 29th, and pitchers are limited to 30 days on a rehab assignment, I believe Milner needs to be activated before rosters expand, on August 27th. That is only a couple of days away – but I have not seen confirmation of this date.
Would the Cubs consider DFA’ing MIlner? He’s only on a one-year deal, making $3.75 Million, so it is not that much of a financial hit. Or they could DFA someone else.
More likely, I think is that the Cubs identify a pitcher who is dealing with a lingering, minor injury, and that player hits the 15-day IL. Major League Baseball has been more strict in recent years in preventing healthy players from being stashed on the IL, but at this point in the season, I’m sure someone would have to be dealing with some minor injury that could be justified.
Cubs in 7 
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