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CHICAGO -- Chicago Cubs starter Matt Garza reported all systems are go after throwing his first rehab start on Wednesday.

Garza is coming back from a lat strain this winter and an elbow injury in July, 2012. The Cubs are hoping that Garza can build arm strength and return to the rotation by the end of the month.

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CHICAGO -- The Chicago Cubs surged ahead early in a 6-2 victory over the San Diego Padres in the third of a four-game set at Wrigley Field on Wednesday.

How it happened: Former Cub and No. 1 draft pick Andrew Cashner started for the first time against Chicago. Cashner was traded to San Diego for first baseman Anthony Rizzo in 2011. Manager Dale Sveum started seven left-handed hitters in his lineup. Starlin Castro started the scoring with an RBI single that plated Julio Borbon in the first inning. Cubs starting pitcher Scott Feldman doubled in the second run, scoring Darwin Barney in the second inning. Cashner's pitch count (76 through three innings) skyrocketed in the third, thanks in large part to a two-run double by catcher Dioner Navarro. Cashner’s 89th pitch was an RBI groundout off the bat of Luis Valbuena. Nate Schierholtz doubled home the sixth run in the seventh inning. San Diego second baseman Jedd Gyorko hits his first major league home run to break up Feldman's shutout in the eighth. Chase Headley homered with one out in the ninth.

What it means: The Cubs have won six of their past nine games. With a win on Thursday, they can wrap up their second straight series victory. Feldman pitched his first career complete game as he records his second consecutive win while striking out 12. That matches his career high. After a rough beginning to the season, the veteran pitcher has been outstanding as of late.

Outside the box: Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein said infielder Ian Stewart is not ready to return to the major leagues; he's rehabbing a leg injury in the minors. Teams can send a player out for only 20 days on a rehab assignment. “You can always get recertified if you are not healthy yet," Epstein said. "He has had some bumps and bruises along the way. We will just monitor it daily and see how he is doing.” … Another rehab began for the Cubs as RHP Matt Garza threw 42 pitches in 2⅔ innings at Double-A on Wednesday. Garza is rehabbing from a strained side muscle he injured on Feb. 17. Sveum said Garza will return to the team in between minor league starts. He also stated his pitcher would be re-evaluated after the third outing.

Up next: Chicago LHP Travis Wood (2-1, 2.25 ERA) faces Padres LHP Eric Stults (2-2, 5.67 ERA) in Thursday's series finale.

PEARL, Miss. -- Chicago Cubs pitcher Matt Garza pitched 2 2-3 innings in his first rehabilitation start, giving up one run, one hit and two walks for Double-A Tennessee against Mississippi.

The 29-year-old right-hander threw 42 pitches, three short of his limit, on a soggy afternoon after a 1½-hour rain delay.

Garza cruised through the first inning, needing just seven pitches to get three outs. In the second, he walked the first two batters before giving up a run-scoring single to Braeden Schlehuber.

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Buster Olney looks at four prominent players who he thinks could be traded this summer -- Chase Utley, Chris Perez, Matt Garza and John Buck.

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MILWAUKEE -- Chicago Cubs pitcher Matt Garza took one step closer to returning from his lat injury Friday night, throwing two innings of a simulated game before the Cubs took on the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park.

“I just was happy to be out there,” Garza said afterwards. “It was cold, there were no lights, but who cares. Pretty excited, pretty pumped. Now back to work.”

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The weather in Chicago is even affecting rehabbing Chicago Cubs players as pitcher Matt Garza's start at Class-A Kane County on Friday has been canceled due to concerns about the field conditions. Instead, Garza will travel with the Cubs to Milwaukee this weekend and throw a simulated game there.

"Tomorrow (Friday) will just be like two innings, like a 35-pitch simulation type thing," manager Dale Sveum said before Thursday's game against the Texas Rangers.

If all goes well Garza will then pitch for Double-A Tennessee as he continues to recover from a lat injury suffered early in spring training. It caused him to miss the entire Cactus League season.

Third baseman Ian Stewart was supposed to play in games at Triple-A Iowa on Wednesday and Thursday but rain-outs there have postponed his rehab from a quad injury also suffered early in spring.

"He was supposed to play three, nine-inning games in a row and then got rained out yesterday and rained out already today (Thursday)," Sveum said. "It's still a slow process."

Stewart is 0-7 in two games for Iowa with four strikeouts. He's to play there for about two weeks before rejoining the Cubs.

CHICAGO -- Chicago Cubs pitcher Matt Garza will begin a rehab stint at Single-A Kane County on Friday, the team announced before Tuesday's game against the Texas Rangers.

Garza is expected to pitch two innings as he continues to recover from a lat injury on his left side which has sidelined him since beginning of spring training.

Garza, 29, missed the second half of last season because of an elbow problem, then went down because of his lat ailment in the opening days of spring training while throwing batting practice. He signed a one-year, $9.5 million deal in the offseason and will become a free agent after this season.

Garza threw a bullpen session Tuesday at Wrigley Field and the Cubs declared him ready to pitch in games, however there is no timetable for his return to the Cubs.

Baseball is witnessing the most competitive balance in more than two decades. As a result, general managers of contending teams already are preparing and targeting potential trade partners for the July 31 trade deadline. All the same, non-contenders are scouting the top prospects in the contenders’ farm system and noting their own trade targets.

For that reason, even 120 days out from the July 31 trade deadline, it isn’t at all too early to be thinking about possible trades.

Thus, here are 10 players I think will most likely be traded by July 31. Early on, GMs have identified the Miami Marlins, Houston Astros, Chicago Cubs and Minnesota Twins as the four teams most likely to be quickly out of the race, which is why this list has eight players from those teams.

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CHICAGO – Barring any hiccups in the rehab process, Chicago Cubs starter Matt Garza is likely to return to the team in early to mid-May, according to Cubs manager Dale Sveum.

“He has been throwing on flat ground and long toss,” Sveum said. “Everything has been going well, so a couple of bullpens and he will go out and pitch a couple innings.”

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ATLANTA -- Injured Chicago Cubs starter Matt Garza is confident he can make a return to the rotation next month after re-joining the team in Atlanta on Thursday night.

“I’m pushing for early May and pushing hard too,” Garza said Friday before the Cubs played the Braves.

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GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- Of the numerous spring training injuries the Chicago Cubs have suffered this year there’s one that bothers manager Dale Sveum more than the others.

“The one disappointment was (Matt) Garza,” Sveum said Sunday before his team played the Cleveland Indians. “Right now Garza is the one, if we had him opening day, that changes things around a little bit. We’d have three guys like that at the top.”

Garza has been out with a lat injury on his left side since early in spring training. This, after missing time in the second half last year due to an elbow strain.

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MESA, Ariz. -- Dave Sappelt made the roster as a fifth outfielder after the Chicago Cubs paired down their roster to 35 players on Friday.

Pitchers Chris Rusin, Drew Carpenter, Jaye Chapman, Casey Coleman, Jensen Lewis and Blake Parker will report to minor league camp as will infielders Edwin Maysonet and Brad Nelson. Outfielders Brian Bogusevic and Darnell McDonald also were sent down.

"Those days you dread," manager Dame Sveum said Friday morning. "Especially a lot of those guys that went down today, they had good springs. Bogusevic had a really good spring training. The Colemans, the Parkers, they all threw the ball well."

The final infield position is down to Steve Clevenger and Alberto Gonzalez. Gonzalez is the likely candidate unless the Cubs go outside the organization.

"There's still things that can happen through guys getting released and waiver wires and all that," Sveum said.

The bullpen has one spot open among four players with Hector Rondon and Michael Bowden securing jobs along with James Russell, Shawn Camp, Kyuji Fujikawa and Carlos Marmol. That leaves lefty Hisanori Takahashi battling with righties Rafael Dolis, Zach Putnam and Cory Wade for the final spot.

Four players including Matt Garza, Scott Baker, Ian Stewart and Arodys Vizcaino will start the season on the disabled list.

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Chicago Cubs manager Dale Sveum said Thursday that Matt Garza is pain-free and is a week or so away from throwing off a mound.

Garza, who has not pitched off a mound since Feb. 17 when he injured his right side during a side session, is continuing his long-toss program and is throwing every other day.

Garza missed the last the last two months of the 2012 season with elbow soreness.

Roster moves

The Cubs will have another round of cuts on Friday. Bullpen spots could be the focus of this round of cuts. The Cubs will carry seven relief pitchers and five starters.

Charity game

The Cubs and Padres traveled to Tucson for the Christina-Taylor Green Foundation Fundraiser game. The foundation formed by the young girl's parents John and Roxanna Green has raised $500,000 for local and national funding for the causes of grade school girls and young women. Green was shot and killed by a gunman in Tucson during a rally for Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords in January, 2011. John Green is a baseball scout. He is the son of former Cubs general manager Dallas Green.

Baker update

Scott Baker will have his sore elbow examined Saturday by team orthopedic specialist Stephen Gryzlo in Mesa. Baker aggravated his surgically repaired elbow in a Cactus League start March 17.

PHOENIX -- What initially looked like a deep, if not spectacular, starting rotation for the Chicago Cubs appears questionable at best with two weeks left until opening day.

Freak injuries and slow starts for some of the staff have depleted a once-decent inventory of starters that the Cubs front office put together during the winter. Plan A had newcomers Edwin Jackson, Scott Feldman, Scott Baker and Carlos Villanueva joining a returning core group led by Jeff Samardzija, Travis Wood and Matt Garza.

Certainly it was reasonable to assume that Baker and Garza might take longer to find their grooves this spring. Both pitchers were coming off of elbow problems -- in Baker’s case, ligament replacement surgery and in Garza’s, extensive elbow rehab.

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GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Edwin Jackson will make his Wrigley Field debut as a member of the Chicago Cubs in the team's home opener against the Milwaukee Brewers on April 8, manager Dale Sveum said Thursday.

Sveum announced the rotation for the first week of the season with Jeff Samardzija starting Opening Day against the Pittsburgh Pirates on April 1 followed by Jackson and Travis Wood to wrap up the series. Scott Feldman, Carlos Villanueva and Samardzija will start in Atlanta against the Braves April 5-7.

Sveum said he wanted the lefty Wood to pitch in Pittsburgh because he likes the matchup there.

Pitchers Matt Garza and Scott Baker are expected to open the season on the disabled list, allowing Sveum to set up his rotation now.

Garza is recovering from a lat injury he suffered the first week of spring training.

"Everything is great with him," Sveum said of Garza's progress.

Garza has been working his way back to the mound by playing long toss from 45 and 60 feet. If he progresses accordingly, he'll throw from 90 feet this weekend and then get back on a mound.

Baker is recovering from Tommy John surgery which caused him to miss all of last season. His first Cactus League start is scheduled for Sunday against the Oakland Athletics.

Garza and Baker are expected to join the rotation when healthy.