Regardless of what the Cubs do at the trade deadline in a few weeks, things are shaping up for the roster to have a nice boost in late-July.

The Cubs are seeing encouraging trends on a slew of important pitchers: Julian Merryweather, Ben Brown, Jordan Wicks, Caleb Kilian, Mark Leiter Jr. and Javier Assad.

All six arms look like they will be back within the next few weeks as the Cubs are targeting just after the All-Star Break for a number of the pitchers.

Chief among them is Merryweather, who has been out with a rib stress fracture since April 6.

The Cubs came into this season expecting Merryweather to be a central part of their bullpen, pitching in high-leverage moments. He has appeared in just 4 games as he has missed more than 3 months.

The veteran right-hander had 17 holds and 2 saves last season to go along with a 3.38 ERA and 98 strikeouts in 72 innings.

Merryweather threw a live bullpen Tuesday afternoon at Wrigley Field before the Cubs’ 6-4 loss to the Phillies. He will throw another live session Saturday before departing on a rehab stint. The Cubs are aiming for him to get 3 rehab appearances before potentially rejoining the team after the All-Star Break, if all goes according to plan.

“Today went very well,” Craig Counsell said. “It was a really good day.”

After weeks of being in Arizona rehabbing, Merryweather is back in Chicago with the team for a little bit.

“They wanted to get some eyes on me and we’ll go from there,” Merryweather said. “But everything has been progressing really well. … The rehab process is a little slow at times with the injury.

“It was good to get to Arizona and take care of a few things, lay a good foundation to come back here and perform here pretty soon.”

Kilian (shoulder) made his first rehab assignment Tuesday night with Class-A South Bend.

The 27-year-old righty has been out all season after suffering the shoulder injury in the middle of Spring Training but he could impact the roster as a rotation option or in the bullpen when he returns.

On Sunday, Assad (forearm) played catch and Leiter (forearm) threw a “touch-and-feel” bullpen.

Counsell said Leiter might be “a little ahead” of the other guys. The veteran reliever is eligible to come off the IL next week – July 9 – and it’s possible we could see him back before the All-Star Break (July 15-18).

“We’ve got a fairly sizable group trending towards post-All-Star Break and the second half of July,” Counsell said.

Brown (neck) is still in the stage of throwing bullpens. The Cubs hope he and Wicks will be back at some point in late July as well, though they don’t have exact timelines for either rookie.

With all those pitchers out, the Cubs have been able to piece together a staff. But it would certainly be a boost to both the bullpen and rotation to have Leiter, Merryweather, Brown and the others back in the fold.

“That’s a good group of pitchers,” Counsell said. “That’s very important to this team, absolutely. Very meaningful. There’s starters; there’s relievers. It’s a meaningful group that we were counting on for major innings.

“We got to get to that point. And we got to do something to that point and we’ve got to stay healthy to that point. But that’s a significant group coming back in a fairly short period of time. That’s meaningful.”

On the other hand, Adbert Alzolay (forearm) and Yency Almonte (shoulder) face a murkier timeline. Almonte has experienced a setback in his recovery and was getting a second opinion on his shoulder on Tuesday, while Counsell said he doesn’t expect Alzolay back until “closer to the back half of July at the soonest.”