Cubs Injury Updates: Nico Hoerner, Clint Frazier, David Bote All Nearing Returns

The Cubs have been fielding a MASH unit lately, but it looks like healthy reinforcements are on the way. Nico Hoerner ran the bases Saturday morning for the first time since spraining his ankle in a freak collision with an umpire in San Diego, providing evidence that perhaps robo umps aren’t just for calling balls and strikes. The shortstop’s absence has been eased to an extent by the return of Andrelton Simmons, but Simmons can barely hit his way through wet toilet paper.

Some Cubs updates:

– Nico Hoerner to run the bases for the first time in his recovery today.
– Sean Newcomb threw a 40-pitch bullpen and they’ll assess next steps based on how he’s feeling.
– Clint Frazier and David Bote both expected to start again in Iowa today.

— Jared Wyllys (@jwyllys) May 21, 2022

In other injury news, lefty reliever Sean Newcomb (ankle) threw a 40-pitch bullpen and the next steps in his rehab will be determined by how he feels. Clint Frazier will play his fourth game with the Iowa Cubs as he works his way back from having his appendix removed last month. He’s hit a pair of doubles and looks to be in good shape, so he could be activated next week.

David Bote is someone a lot of Cubs fans have probably forgotten about because he hasn’t played yet this year following offseason shoulder surgery He’ll be making his third start for the I-Cubs as he builds back up, but it’ll probably take a while yet for him to accumulate enough plate appearances to be ready for MLB again. The other issue is space, as the Cubs currently have too much redundancy on the infield.

Jed Hoyer and Carter Hawkins are going to have to lace up their can-kicking shoes here because they’re going to have to make quite a few procedural moves in the coming days.