The Chicago Cubs’ rotation, which has been beleaguered by injuries, is becoming the healthiest it’s been all year.

The team activated Javier Assad on Tuesday — he’ll pitch for the first time all season in the majors against the Toronto Blue Jays — and right-hander Jameson Taillon, who made a rehab outing with Triple-A Iowa last Friday, might not be too far behind.

That’s a good thing for this rotation. In case you forgot, Justin Steele underwent season-ending elbow surgery in April, Shota Imanaga missed nearly two months with a hamstring injury, Taillon has been out since the start of July, and Assad dealt with an oblique injury all year.

Make no mistake: Adding Taillon and Assad back into the fold is big for a rotation that ranks roughly middle of the pack in baseball in terms of ERA. But it also creates a fascinating roster conundrum.

Imanaga is the Cubs’ ace, Matthew Boyd is an All-Star and has been the lone healthy arm all season in the rotation, rookie Cade Horton quickly is establishing himself as a very solid major league starter, and Colin Rea — whom the team brought in for depth last offseason — has been reliable.

Rea tossed six innings of one-run ball Saturday in St. Louis, and the Cubs are 14-6 in games he’s started this season. He has a 3.53 ERA and 1.13 WHIP in 43.1 innings across his last eight starts.

With Assad back in the fold, that makes five starters, plus Taillon and young right-hander Ben Brown, who is in the Cubs’ bullpen at the time of writing. So, who will be the odd man out of the rotation when Taillon comes back?

The answer could come in the form of a six-man rotation, and incorporating Assad and Taillon could help do that. If Taillon returns with Assad this week, the Cubs could use their reappearances to not only give the other starters extra rest but also line up their best pitchers for next week’s pivotal five-game series against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Assad is scheduled to start Tuesday, with Horton — on six days’ rest — going Wednesday and Boyd taking the ball in Thursday’s finale. That could line up Taillon, Imanaga and Rea in some capacity for the weekend series against the Pittsburgh Pirates and potentially set up Assad, Horton, Boyd, Taillon and Imanaga against the Brewers.

That would allow Rea to start the series opener in Anaheim, Assad the second game and Horton the finale on five days’ rest before an off day.

It’s a bit of a catch-22: Horton, Boyd and Imanaga would pitch that Brewers series on four days’ rest (which is standard in a five-man rotation) — something the Cubs haven’t done much with that trio. The Cubs have made it no secret that they’d like to manage Horton and Boyd’s workload — Horton because he threw just 34.1 innings last season because of injury, and Boyd because he made just eight regular-season starts in 2024 after recovering from Tommy John surgery.

“There is no direct science as far as exactly what numbers,” Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said during the last homestand. “We’ve obviously tried to monitor [Horton’s] strength and his health throughout, and we’ll be careful. … It’s not like there’s a right line. I think so much of it is evaluating him start to start and making sure he is feeling good.”

Fifteen of Boyd’s 23 starts this year have come on five or more days of rest. Ten of Horton’s 14 starts have come after five or more days of rest, and Imanaga has made just four of his 16 starts on four days’ rest. The left-hander has been better on the extra time off — he has a 3.15 ERA this year on five days’ rest, a 2.03 ERA with six days off and a 4.37 ERA with just four days between starts.

But ultimately, the Cubs’ desire to have their best arms against the Brewers will outweigh that decision. It’s a playoff-like series in August — that’s what happens when you play your division rival for the final time this early in the season — so the Cubs probably will want to have their best toeing the rubber in those five games.

Assad and Taillon’s return could help the Cubs’ rotation line up nicely for the stretch run.