Cubs manager Lou Piniella wrestled Saturday morning with using a six-man rotation that’s actually a five-man rotation with an asterisk.
The addition of Steve Trachsel has given Piniella and pitching coach Larry Rothschild an opportunity to tweak the rotation any way they see fit for the stretch run.
“Right now it’s real muddled,” Piniella conceded.
After saying he would go with a “modified” six-man rotation Friday, Piniella modified his position Saturday.
“I can’t pitch six people,” he said. “That’s one thing I can’t do. We can skip [Sean] Marshall one time and then we have to work from there.”
Piniella confirmed Carlos Zambrano would start Monday against the Dodgers, and Trachsel would go Tuesday or Wednesday.
Trachsel said he was surprised to return to the Cubs but happy to come back to the place where it all started.
“The postseason anywhere is something I was hoping for,” he said. “Coming back to Chicago is definitely going to be a comfort level for me. I got a lot of phone calls from a lot of people I know here still.”
If Trachsel starts Wednesday, that puts him in line to start the Sept. 10 makeup game against the Cardinals at Wrigley Field.
Piniella said he probably would start Trachsel on Tuesday, but that nothing is concrete, except that Zambrano will remain on schedule, pitching every fifth day.
“The people here who basically we’ve given a little time to are the three lefties (Marshall, Ted Lilly and Rich Hill),” Piniella said.
At one point late in his press briefing, Piniella handed his sheet of pitching probables for September to a reporter.
“Now if you want to figure it out, we’ll give it to you,” Piniella said. “If you come up with a good solution, be my guest.”
The Cubs see Trachsel as a solid veteran with postseason experience.
He helped pitch them into the playoffs in 1998, when he won Game 163, the wild-card tiebreaker against San Francisco.
Trachsel was given the locker that used to house Sammy Sosa during Trachsel’s previous stint with the Cubs.
“Who?” Trachsel said.
While Trachsel figures that one out, Piniella will try to figure out his rotation.
“The guys we’ve had here have all done a nice job, so you don’t want to [take somebody] out of the rotation entirely just because you get a new pitcher,” he said.
“At the same time, Trachsel has been through this before, and experience this time of year is important.
“We’re going to play some teams that we prefer to throw right-handers against, and we’re trying to juggle this thing so it works out best for everybody. It’s a real muddle.”
