Chicago Cubs Fans Urged Not To Panic About World Series Veteran's Cold Start

The Chicago Cubs season has been a positive surprise for some, but one veteran on the club has been off to a cold start.

Kyle Hendricks has been almost as bad as you could imagine him being this season, but Bleacher Report's Joel Reuter has urged fans to not panic until after he returns from the injured list.

Hendricks has historically been a great pitcher for Chicago since his debut in 2014, but this season is a completely different story. He might have earned the ability to have a slump without calling for him to be cut, but his first five starts might have been bad enough to warrant it.

Through the World Series champion's first five starts this year, teams are slashing .378/.425/.694 against him as his ERA has stayed consistently around 12.00 so far this year. It's not just that he got shelled during an outing and the number is inflated, he has been shelled every single time he's gone out and given up at least four runs.

Things went from bad to worse for him as he landed on the 15-day injured list towards the end of April.

The 34-year-old has begun pitching in his rehab assignment with the Double-A affiliate. His first outing went a little bit better than how his season began, but it still had some shaky moments. He gave up two runs on six hits in five innings of work, with a season high of seven strikeouts.

Digging a little bit deeper into Hendricks' start, it's clear that he has been a little bit unlucky but not enough to clear him from speculation. Hitters have an absurd .392 BABIP against him, which would be hard to keep up for an entire season. There has not been a season in his career where the number was at least .300.

His expected numbers, ERA and FIP, are nowhere close to how high it has been this year. His xERA is still very poor at 6.94, but his xFIP is at 4.36 which would not be the worst mark of his career.

Will Hendricks likely bounce back a little bit after his injury? Yes. Is it still worth monitoring because of how bad the start has been? Also yes. It will take a few starts once he gets back to full health to make a solid decision on what to do with him.