Patrick Wisdom is back from the IL, but with his return come some understandable question marks about how playing time will be doled out on the Cubs.

Coming into spring, the Cubs were clear that Wisdom’s role will be drawing starts against left-handed pitching and he would mostly be at first base – likely forming a platoon with the left-handed-hitting Michael Busch.

Then Wisdom was sidelined for much of Spring Training, first with a quad injury and then with a back injury that required a stint on the IL.

In his place, the Cubs added veteran Garrett Cooper — in camp on a minor-league deal — to the Opening Day roster and Cooper has served as the right-handed complement at first base and DH.

In his first game back Friday, Wisdom drew the start in right field, moved to third base in the 6th inning and hit 2nd in the Cubs order against Marlins southpaw A.J. Puk.

“Patrick’s gonna play primarily against left-handed pitching,” Craig Counsell said. “He’s got the ability to play the outfield, third base, first base, DH. So wherever the needs come up, we’ll fit him in one of those spots.”

Cooper has some experience playing the outfield as well, but it has been a while since he routinely played out there. He has spent 3 defensive innings in the outfield since 2021 (all of which have come this season) while Wisdom has played at least 51 innings, 115 innings and 113 innings in the outfield over the last 3 seasons.

Wisdom’s return adds more depth to an outfield group that is suddenly not as solidified with Seiya Suzuki on the IL for the next few weeks. The Cubs also have rookie Alexander Canario up in the big leagues as another right-handed outfield option but his playing time has been sparse in Chicago so far.

Busch is off to a great start that includes tying a franchise record with a homer in 5 straight games on the recent road trip. Cooper has also been hitting well, so first base has been a strong spot for the Cubs in the early going.

At third base, Christopher Morel has fared well defensively of late after a few hiccups to begin the year. The Cubs would prefer to avoid moving Morel all around the diamond after setting a course for him to receive some defensive stability for the first time in his career.

Behind Morel, Nick Madrigal — who got the start Friday — has played really well defensively and provides another option at third base that very well may be ahead of Wisdom on the depth chart.

In other words, the corner infield positions are crowded so in the short-term, Wisdom’s best path to playing time appears to be in right field and at DH.

He’s ready to do whatever the team needs.

“I know I’m playing right field today,” he said before Friday’s game. “Down [in Triple-A], I was playing first, third, right field, DH. Kinda the standard of where I usually play.

“Who knows, maybe I’ll come in and close,” Wisdom joked. “I’m just kidding. I like Adbert [Alzolay] in that role.”

Wisdom began the year on the IL with the back strain and absolutely mashed when he kicked off his rehab stint with Triple-A Iowa a couple weeks ago. In 9 games, he had 7 extra-base hits (including 3 homers), 10 RBI, a .407 average and a ridiculous 1.417 OPS.

“It’s definitely nice to see results,” he said. “With something like a back, you don’t know how it’s going to take into the game. I feel comlpetely fine, no hesitation and it’s nice to see those results come.

“I just kinda carried what I was doing in Spring Training and didn’t really change anything. So that’s nice too, just to keep rolling with what I was doing and all the feels that I had and the mentality that I had. It’s nice to be back here and nice to have those results.”