Cubs right-hander was placed on the injured list with a neck strain last week, but the team has now diagnosed him with a more ominous-sounding stre s reaction in his neck, reports Patrick Mooney of The Athletic ( ). Its expected that Brown will be out longer than the 15-day minimum on his current IL stint, though a firm timetable isnt yet known. Were still trying to figure out how long and what it means and what he can do, manager Craig Counsell told the Cubs beat regarding Browns updated diagnosis. Its a unique injury for a pitcher, so were trying to just get some more opinions. Acquired from the Phillies sending to Philadelphia, the now-24-year-old Brown made his big league debut this season. Hes been quite good in 15 appearances with the Cubs eight of them starts. In 55 1/3 frames, Brown has pitched to a 3.58 ERA with a terrific 28.8% strikeout rate, a solid 8.6% walk rate and a 38.9% grounder rate. Brown has only yielded 0.81 homers per nine frames. Hed recently stepped into a consistent rotation role his last four outings were starts and posted a 3.60 ERA with a 25-to-6 K/BB ratio in 20 Victor Caratini Jersey innings. Browns injury dovetails with the return of fellow rookie , who was out for six weeks due to a forearm strain. Also 24 years old, the left-handed Wicks came on in long relief of Brown when Brown exited after four innings. He to sed 3 1/3 frames that day and held the Reds to one run in that time. With Brown shelved, Wicks seems likely to step into the No. 5 spot in the rotation behind , , and . Wicks made seven starts last season and barely kept his rookie eligibility intact. Hes up to 61 innings in his big league career (26 1/3 of them this year) and owns a 4.43 ERA with a 20.1% strikeout rate, 7.8% walk rate and 43.3% ground-ball rate. Wicks to sed 126 innings last season and, after mi sing six weeks of the current year, shouldnt need to worry about soaring past that workload. But given his own injury earlier this season and some questionable depth in the rotation particularly in light of veteran struggles it wouldnt be a surprise to see the Cubs look into some rotation help at next months deadline, a suming the team is still in contention for a Wild Card spot. Chicago is currently 7.5 games behind Milwaukee in the NL Central but just one game out in the NL Wild Card chase. Carlos Lee Jersey