LOS ANGELES — One month into a new season, the Chicago Cubs are already burning through their pitching reserves at an alarming rate. For a club that expects to be playing in late October, it is the blinking red light amid several promising indicators.

Building a bigger and better pitching staff became the top offseason priority after the Cubs were eliminated from last year’s playoffs. The club expended so much energy and effort to beat the San Diego Padres in the wild-card round — and then lost a best-of-five series against the Milwaukee Brewers — there was no realistic path forward.

During the Winter Meetings, Chicago manager Craig Counsell acknowledged how difficult it would have been to match up against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series: “If we would have had to keep going, that’s where I think it would have got daunting.”

Exiting Dodger Stadium after Sunday’s 6-0 loss, the Cubs looked forward to the ride down to San Diego and a chance to reset. But even with a clear offseason mandate to upgrade the pitching staff, a larger budget for major-league payroll this year and a 10-game winning streak in April, figuring it out will be a daunting challenge.

“We need to keep replenishing,” Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said. “It is a constant source of concern.”

Shota Imanaga wasn’t at the top of his game during Sunday’s defeat, allowing three runs in the first inning and two runs in the sixth with zeros in between. Clearly, that wasn’t good enough to beat the two-time defending World Series champs.

Through six starts, though, Imanaga (3.15 ERA) has largely resembled the All-Star who finished fifth in the 2024 NL Cy Young Award voting — and not the pitcher the Cubs avoided using during last year’s elimination game in Milwaukee.

The pressing issue is the sheer volume of Cubs pitchers on the injured list — 11 of the 26 pitchers on the 40-man roster — and how the club plans to cover about 1,200 innings over the next five months. It’s all interconnected: when Counsell pulls or pushes starters, how to maximize the best relievers and where the organization will turn when more problems arise.

The attrition is such that Hoyer said it feels like “we’re 70 games in” when it’s actually 28. Before Sunday’s game, Riley Martin became the latest addition to the injured list when the lefty reliever was shut down because of left elbow inflammation and directed back to Chicago for testing.

The roster churn also involved Vince Velasquez, who was designated for assignment after throwing 2 1/3 scoreless innings in Saturday’s 12-4 loss, his first major-league appearance in three years.

The reinforcements from Triple-A Iowa included Charlie Barnes, a 30-year-old left-hander, and Yacksel Ríos, a 32-year-old right-hander who had previously bounced around five major-league teams between 2017 and 2023.

“The next guy’s got to do his job,” Counsell said. “We’ve had a number of guys get opportunities. We’ve got guys coming back soon. That’s a good thing. But, again, the injuries, they have an effect eventually, right?”

Phil Maton (right knee tendinitis) is expected to be activated during the three-game series against the Padres that begins Monday. For the Cubs, signing him to a two-year, $14.5 million contract this offseason seemed like splurging, given their reluctance to invest heavily in the bullpen.

Daniel Palencia (lat strain) is scheduled for a Tuesday bullpen session that will determine the next steps in his program. The fact the closer’s injury is on his left/non-throwing side gives the Cubs additional confidence that his return is on the horizon.

Ethan Roberts will likely have at least one more rehab outing with Iowa after throwing one inning in Saturday’s Triple-A appearance. In what team historians would term a “Cubbie Occurrence,” Roberts sliced his right middle finger during a mid-April workout at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, where his medicine ball routine accidentally knocked down a metal vent that fell onto his hand.

Two other relievers the Cubs were counting on for high-leverage situations — Hunter Harvey (right triceps inflammation) and Caleb Thielbar (left hamstring strain) — also remain sidelined.

“I don’t think we’re out of the woods by any means,” Hoyer said. “We’ve had a lot of unexpected performances out of guys that have really helped, but we need to stabilize and get healthy.”

Those surprising contributions helped fuel a 17-11 start, a winning percentage that comes close to a 100-win pace over a full season. Certain elements of that surge — Gold Glove defenders all over the field, accomplished hitters with long track records and a deeper pool of position players — should be sustainable.

Intangibles and continuity also matter. With a few notable exceptions, such as All-Star third baseman Alex Bregman and talented starter Edward Cabrera, these are mostly the same players and coaches who won 92 games last year. It all adds up, the ability to stick with a routine, process information and maintain a consistent attitude.

But it’s telling that club officials are not downplaying the cumulative effect of these particular injuries. They’ve always been realistic about pitching health, viewing it as fleeting, an unpredictable variable that changes seasons.

The Cubs have not created the kind of homegrown pitching factory that continually produces young arms. The first impression of the NL Central is that it will be a more competitive division than anticipated. The trade deadline isn’t until Aug. 3, keeping the focus on internal solutions.