The Arizona Diamondbacks may have rushed Corbin Burnes back, and that's a decision that could come back to haunt them.

Burnes was far from his usual self in 2026, and that resulted in a second stint on the Injured List.

Officially, the team recalled Jose Cabrera from Triple-A Reno as they felt they had no choice but to put Burnes on the 15-day IL due to right shoulder inflammation.

The Burnes move is retroactive to Tuesday, Sept. 22, meaning the soonest he could be activated is Thursday, Oct. 8.

The Diamondbacks haven't even clinched a playoff spot yet, but looking ahead, that could potentially bring him back late into the National League Division Series, should Arizona make the playoffs, survive the Wild Card round, and then not be eliminated in the NLDS by that point.

Arizona still doesn't control their own fate, but they potentially have one game of wiggle room. If Saturday, Sept. 26, turns into a bullpen day, that's likely the day when this team would have the least confidence.

That said, they trust their bullpen at this point in the season far more than they trusted Burnes on the mound.

That's a crazy sentence to say, but Burnes simply wasn't great this year. No one expected him to immediately be a Cy Young-caliber pitcher again, but he sported a -0.3 WAR, which was the first time it was in the negatives since his all-time bad 2019 campaign.

Burnes had a 7.84 ERA and didn't record a decision in any of his three starts. He only threw 10.1 innings this season, and barring a miracle, those will be his final numbers to close the book on a frustrating 2026 season.

Again, this is a D-backs team that is relying on the Philadelphia Phillies to not go 2-0. Seeing as Arizona is one game back but holds the tiebreaker over Philadelphia, that means all the D-backs need to do in order to make the postseason is finish with the same record as the Phillies.

Michael Soroka is scheduled to pitch in the regular season finale, but none of that would matter if the Phillies win and the D-backs lose on Sept. 26.

Philadelphia's magic number is two, so while this Diamondbacks winning streak is a sight to behold, they still need a bit of help from the Phillies.