It has been an especially tough year for the Cubs on the injury front, as they have had to weather a veritable monsoon of ailments throughout the season.

But things had been trending better in that regard over the last few weeks, with multiple key players working toward a return.

And for the most part, the injury woes have hit the pitching staff, while the position player group has been largely healthy throughout the year.

Both aspects have now changed, as the Cubs were dealt a pair of injury blows Sunday against the St. Louis Cardinals and will have to spend the next few weeks trying to keep the ship afloat in the aftermath.

The Cubs made a slew of roster moves Monday afternoon, placing shortstop Dansby Swanson on the 10-day IL with a left oblique strain and right-handed pitcher Edward Cabrera on the 15-day IL with a blister on his right hand. Rookie James Triantos was also optioned to Triple-A Iowa, with Javier Assad, Kevin Alcántara and Owen Miller coming up from the minors.

The Cubs expect to be without their Gold Glove shortstop for at least the next month.

“It’s probably going to be four weeks, is our guess right now and we’ll just go from there,” manager Craig Counsell said. “Dansby’s ready to attack the injury and do whatever he can to make this go as quickly as possible.”

Four weeks takes Swanson out of almost the entire rest of the regular season.

Six weeks from Monday, the Cubs will have just wrapped their final regular season game in Boston and will either be preparing for the NL Wild-Card Series or the NLDS.

That doesn’t leave much wiggle room for Swanson or the Cubs.

He is in the midst of a career-worst season in the batting average department, but Swanson is still fourth on the team in homers (18) and third in RBI (66) while playing stellar defense.

It’s the glovework that will really be where Swanson’s loss is felt the most. The Cubs boast the best defensive unit in baseball by a wide margin, taking hits and runs away from their opponents to aid a pitching staff that has not been fully healthy since early April.

The Cubs’ defense has not only been their strength this season, but it is what sets them apart from every other MLB team.

And Swanson is right at the center of that. In the Wild-Card Series against the Padres last October, San Diego manager Mike Shildt said Swanson deserved an MVP for the series strictly for how amazing he was defensively.

“You notice [Swanson’s defense] right away,” said starting pitcher Kevin Gausman, who was acquired at the trade deadline. “He’s the quarterback of the infield. That position, there’s so many different things that they have to do.

“If you look at the Defensive Runs Saved up the middle, between him and Nico, the next team isn’t very close. That just shows those guys put the work in and when it comes to game time, you can really see it.”

That said, the Cubs are better equipped to survive the loss of their starting shortstop than most — or maybe every — other team in baseball.

Nico Hoerner will move to shortstop in Swanson’s absence while Pedro Ramírez will see most of the time at second base. Hoerner has played 224 career games at shortstop in his big-league career, including a full season at the position in 2022.

Hoerner put up 10 Defensive Runs Saved that season, ranking seventh among full-time shortstops (ironically ahead of Swanson, who had 9 DRS).

Ramírez has been a revelation for the Cubs this year, growing into a core piece for the team.

“Pedro’s a good player — bottom line,” Counsell said. “I told [the media] out of spring training, if Pedro has to come and play every day in April, I’m good with it. This is after 130 major league at-bats where he’s really performed. He’s more than ready for this.”

Matt Shaw will also factor into the middle infield picture when he returns. The second-year player is still recovering from a left hand injury that has cost him nearly two months.

Counsell said if Shaw came out of Monday’s activity feeling good, he would head to Triple-A Iowa for a rehab assignment beginning Wednesday.

Miller was added to the 40-man roster as a backup infielder, essentially swapping places with Triantos.

The Cubs like Miller’s versatility more as the Illinois State University product has 303 MLB games under his belt and has seen significant playing time at first, second and third base. He has also played more than 200 games at shortstop in the minors, including 26 this season for Iowa.

With Cabrera, this is his third trip to the IL this season — and the second for a blister. He missed two weeks with a blister issue in May and June earlier this year.

He then missed nearly two months with a hamstring injury, making his return to the active roster Sunday against the Cardinals. His outing did not go well, allowing seven runs in 3.2 innings and then informing the team after he came out of the start that he was again pitching through a blister.

Cabrera now has a 5.68 ERA and 1.45 WHIP in 15 starts with the Cubs this season.

The Cubs don’t believe Cabrera’s blister issue is serious, but they did not know when he would be available to pitch again and opted to make a move now to help the staff.

“Big picture in general, we’ve got to come up with some better answers on the blister,” Counsell said. “The nail, the blister — we keep having some issues there. Frankly, one thing we’re going to talk about is: Is it happening the longer your outings are? Is that causing this? That may be something we consider for the rest of the year.”

In other words: Cabrera will work his way back to the Cubs as a reliever later this season, something Counsell admitted is the plan right now.

Cabrera’s role is maybe not as important as how effective he is when he’s on the mound. The Cubs traded one of their top prospects (Owen Caissie) to the Marlins for Cabrera in the offseason, but this year has not gone according to plan for the right-hander.

He had been a solid starter in Miami, racking up 7.0 WAR and a 3.95 ERA from 2022-25.

But this year, with that league-best Cubs defense behind him, Cabrera has taken a major step backwards.

“It hasn’t clicked,” Counsell said. “You spend a lot of time figuring those out. I wish every story was a success story. This one right now is not. And we’re certainly going to keep working on trying to find answers there and trying to find solutions.

“I know it’s something that’s very important. I wish I could tell you every story is a success story. But we haven’t done it here [with Cabrera].”

Cabrera acknowledged this season has been “frustrating” but also said he would absolutely accept a move to the bullpen if the Cubs asked him to.

Counsell and the Cubs aren’t ready to announce a pitcher in Cabrera’s place in the rotation, preferring to get through the series with the White Sox first.

David Peterson was bumped from the rotation to the bullpen for Cabrera before Sunday’s game and makes the most sense to slot back into the starting fold. Peterson has a 4.19 ERA in eight starts with the Cubs since he was acquired in a trade with the Mets earlier this summer.

In other roster news, Daniel Palencia was placed on the 60-day IL to make room for Miller on the roster. But that was simply a procedural move and does not indicate a setback for Palencia, who has already been on the IL for longer than 60 days as he recovers from an elbow injury.

Palencia was dominant in a rehab outing with Triple-A Iowa Sunday, striking out three batters in a scoreless inning.