ST. LOUIS — Ben Brown isn’t oblivious.

The Cubs right-hander knows some of his struggles and sees other pitchers coming off the injured list.

“Yeah, I mean some of that is going to be in the back of my mind,” Brown said after the Cubs’ 8-2 loss on Monday to the St. Louis Cardinals. “Obviously, when guys show up in the locker room, they need spots to pitch. It’s hard.”

Brown had a tough outing Monday night – he allowed four, two-run blasts, allowed nine hits and pitched five-plus innings in the loss. The outing ballooned his ERA to 6.13. Cubs manager Craig Counsell announced before the game that Shota Imanaga would be coming off the IL and starting Thursday’s series finale – meaning they need a roster spot.

Combine those two factors and it’s easy to see why those thoughts could creep into Brown’s mind, even on the mound.

“Yeah, you do your best to just focus on what you can control,” Brown said.

What makes it even tougher to stomach is just how close he was to turning in a quality outing. The 24-year-old faced the minimum across the first three innings and retired the first hitters of the fourth inning. But he allowed a double to Willson Contreras and then a two-run shot to Lars Nootbaar that ended up as the beginning of his struggles.

“This is part of being a young starting pitcher in the league and trying to make progress,” Counsell said. “As you have to get 15, 18 outs in a game, it’s difficult.

“It’s hard to see now, but there is growth happening. It’s hard to like the growth when the struggles going on. That’s where the best stuff comes from. We just got to keep working on it and improve the quality of the execution and keep going.”

It’s the nature of a young pitcher, there’s some highs – like his six scoreless inning outings against the Dodgers, Brewers and Reds – and some lows – Monday, for example, or his eight-run outing against the Reds.

“There’s going to be some ups and downs and there’s some growing pains in some areas,” catcher Carson Kelly said, “but he’s got really good stuff and he can pitch at this level. I think that’s just part of being a young player.”

But the Cubs also can’t afford to have an uncertainty in their rotation – especially with Imanaga’s impending return. That doesn’t mean Brown won’t play a role for the Cubs in 2025.

The major league season is long and injuries and other poor performances can happen. Brown’s stuff can clearly play at this level and a reset could help him and the team in the long run – even if that isn’t what Brown wants to hear right now.

“It just all happened really fast,” Brown said. “It’s really frustrating. It’s going to be tough to sleep tonight just knowing I was that close to something really good tonight and just as fast it all went away. So it’s hard.”