Arizona Diamondbacks manager Gibson: Plan is for Trevor Cahill to make his next start

To say Trevor Cahill struggled Tuesday in his start against the San Francisco Giants would be a bit of an understatement.

The right-hander was pulled after 3.2 innings of work. In that time he allowed five runs — all earned — on eight hits with one walk and five strikeouts.

Three starts into his 2014 campaign, Cahill has a 0-3 record with a 7.90 ERA.

While he’s not the only D-backs starter to struggle early in the season, he may be the most polarizing. Since being brought to Arizona in a trade prior to the 2012 season, he has had many ups and downs, but overall has struggled to live up to the expectations that have been placed upon him.

And now, three starts into his third year with the team, is his spot in the rotation a rather tenuous one?

Not exactly, though it may not be a solid one, either, as D-backs manager Kirk Gibson acknowledged Tuesday something has to change with the starting rotation if things do not improve soon.

“We met on it,” he told Burns and Gambo on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM Tuesday evening. “We’re going to try to look at different options. We’re obviously going to have to move some things around.

“If it continues at this rate we’ll have to change some things around and give some others an opportunity.”

The skipper did not say that does not specifically apply to Cahill, and he went on to say the 26-year-old has “good stuff,” but did not want to comment on what the team may or may not be doing with the pitcher.

According to Gibson, the plan right now is for Cahill to make his next start, which is scheduled for Sunday at Chase Field against the L.A. Dodgers. But that does not mean the manager is not going to have a short leash when he takes the mound.

“He threw 80 pitches in three and a third innings today,” he said, pointing to some bad pitches Cahill made in the loss to the Giants. “It’s just that’s killer. You’ve got to get something out of your guys. We got three and a third out of him, that’s not very good.”

Gibson believes more confidence would help Cahill, and mused that they need to find a way to instill that in the struggling hurler. But if it doesn’t happen, the team is not likely to just stand by and watch.

“Obviously it’s something we need to fix,” he said. “We’ll discuss it and we’ll try to move forward.”

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