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Gerrit Cole will miss his scheduled start Monday against the Cubs to fly to LA to have his elbow examined:
Sources: #Pirates RHP Gerrit Cole will NOT start Monday v Cubs. He will fly to LA on Sunday to have sore elbow examined by specialist.
— Rob Biertempfel (@BiertempfelTrib) August 27, 2016
Biertempfel went on to tweet that the Pirates are not concerned about ligament damage. Ok, if not ligament damage, possibly a bone chip(s) floating around?
Obviously none of this is good news, but maybe this explains Cole's struggles since his first career complete game in his last July start. Possible replacements for Monday, before rosters expand, are Juan Nicasio depending on his usage over the weekend, Drew Hutchison who is scheduled to start for Indy on Monday, Stephen Brault and Trevor Williams who would have to be added to the 40-man roster.