How often will Cubs deploy recently promoted Owen Caissie with runs at a premium?

A day after Owen Caissie’s big league dream came true, the Cubs pumped the brakes on the idea that their top prospect would be taking over their struggling-to-score lineup.

Caissie didn’t play in Friday’s series-opening loss to the Pirates as the Cubs try to keep sight of the outrageously hot Brewers at the top of the National League Central.

In the middle of a deep offensive rut — they’ve scored two runs or fewer in eight of their 13 games this month — the Cubs can certainly use Caissie’s bat.

The 23-year-old outfielder hit .289/.389/.566 with 22 home runs in 93 Triple-A games before going 0-for-4 in his major league debut Thursday.

But the Wrigley Field faithful had to wait for an in-person introduction to the organization’s top prospect, a hitter who might be able to play a part in getting a once-potent offense back in shape.

Asked Friday to describe himself to the fan base, Caissie said he was “a guy who can change the game and really a good, solid player.”

Caissie doesn’t seem to have much room to insert himself as an everyday option in an outfield that boasts three All Stars in Ian Happ, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Kyle Tucker. Meanwhile, Seiya Suzuki is fairly entrenched as the team’s DH, the position Caissie played in his debut.

That means a fine tightrope to walk for manager Craig Counsell, who not long ago said the team didn’t want to call up prospects who didn’t have an opportunity to play regularly.

But the Cubs’ team-wide offensive outage has seemingly created an opening. Tucker (batting just .182 in the second half), Crow-Armstrong (.230) and Suzuki (.188) have all been cold at the plate.

Counsell said Friday that the Cubs were taking it game by game with Caissie.

“What we don’t want to happen is that he comes and doesn’t play a lot,” Counsell said. “But also, he’s got to cross the bar of being the best option, too. In our outfield, that’s pretty difficult. That’s the balance that we’re going to have to strike. With the number of games we have coming up, we’ll see how that rolls out. But there’s no strict plan of, ‘He’s got to play this amount or certain days.’”

“I’m here for whatever they need me to do,” Caissie said. “Any aspect of the game, I’m here for that. It’s pretty cool that they trust me for that, and I’m really going to do my best.”

PCA bangs up knee

Before he was thrown out trying to steal second in the bottom of the ninth inning Friday, Crow-Armstrong hurt his knee on a failed attempt at making a diving catch on the warning track in center field in the seventh.

Counsell said after the game that Crow-Armstrong’s knee was banged up on the play, though obviously the All Star was able to continue on. He was hit by a pitch to lead off the bottom of that seventh inning and scored on a sacrifice fly. He singled to start the bottom of the ninth, part of a three-hit day, before over-sliding second on the aforementioned stolen-base try.

As for that out in the final inning that snuffed out a potential threat?

“If we’ve got Pete Crow-Armstrong on first,” Counsell said, “we’re going to run.”