AP Photo/Eric Christian Smith

Revamped Cubs Bullpen Cause for Optimism

Photo of Michael Canter Michael CanterJanuary 29, 2025

Most agree that a brutal May and June cost the Cubs a shot at last year’s playoffs. Chicago was 10-18 in May and 11-16 in June. They needed a strong July to recover but could muster just 13 wins against 12 losses. That was the 2024 season in a nutshell. The Cubs led the NL Central for just one day last season, going up a half-game on the Brewers after beating the Mets 3-1 on April 29, but finished 83-79 (.513) for the second straight year. On the bright side, they were 49-33 (.597) minus that wretched 80-game stretch and have made adjustments this offseason to correct the inconsistent results.

Chicago’s bullpen played a significant role during the team’s extended first-half slump. The relief corps lost 18 games from May through July, and that doesn’t include a brutal April for Adbert Alzolay, who broke camp as the team’s closer. The Cubs were 0-5 in April games when Alzolay blew a lead or save. Héctor Neris replaced him and pitched well initially, but he blew two saves and picked up wins in two additional contests in which he surrendered a lead. Chicago’s bullpen finished the season 25th in win probability added after being dead last in May and June.

Making matters worse, Chicago’s offense struggled at the same time its bullpen was blowing leads. The Cubs scored two runs or fewer in 29 of their first 80 games, including nine shutouts. That’s a recipe for disaster when your bullpen pitches to a 4.45 first-half ERA. Things didn’t start to improve until the Mariners agreed to trade righty reliever Tyson Miller to the Cubs for minor league infielder Jake Slaughter. Miller was 5-1 with a 2.15 ERA, one save, and 15 holds, in 49 appearances for Chicago. He finished nine games and blew just one save, a 3-2 loss to the Brewers on July 24. Miller will play a significant role in this year’s bullpen.

Rookie Porter Hodge arrived as a call-up a week after Miller’s acquisition and finished the season with three wins, nine saves, and nine holds. He blew three leads in 39 appearances and was this year’s favorite to close until the Cubs acquired Ryan Pressly from the Astros. Hodge’s walk rate was a little high, just as it was in the minors, but it didn’t hurt him last season.

The Cubs acquired Nate Pearson from the Blue Jays on July 27 for minor leaguers Yohendrick Pinango and Josh Rivera. Pearson is a failed starter who may have found his niche as a late-inning reliever, even if the plan for now is to have him stretch out during spring training. He was 2-1 with four holds and just one blown save in 19 appearances after the trade. Pearson walked just four batters in 26.1 innings as a Cub, though he did give up four home runs.

Jed Hoyer elected to reunite with former Cub Rob Zastryzny on November 4 after he was non-tendered by the Brewers. Zastryzny was 1-0 in nine appearances with Milwaukee, working as an opener on three occasions. The Brewers are known for their success with reclamation projects and Zastryzny is another in a long line of success stories. A minor adjustment helped the 32-year-old garner the highest K/BB rate of his career between Triple-A Nashville and the bigs.

Once exposed to his pitch shape metrics, Zastryzny discovered he was better at generating sidespin than topspin. His approach to his secondary pitches shifted to maximizing the former, and new front office addition Tyler Zombro said during CubsCon that they brought the lefty back because he’s gotten so much better at making the ball move right. Zastryzny added that he knows his job is essentially to load up on cutters and sweepers.

The Cubs and Guardians agreed on a trade in late November that brought Eli Morgan to Chicago for minor league outfielder Alfonsin Rosario. Morgan was 1-1 for Cleveland with a 1.93 ERA in 42 innings, allowing only 41 batters to reach base. He had three holds last season and did not once surrender a lead. Though the 28-year-old righty was a breakout reliever in 2024, his numbers seem sustainable due to his ability to minimize quality contact and strand runners.

He’s a middle-innings reliever, and his acquisition improves the stability of Chicago’s bullpen. As with Zastryzny, the Cubs identified in Morgan the ability to do one thing particularly well. In this case, it’s one of the better changeups in the game. Leaning into that even more than the 24% he threw it last year should allow him to maintain or improve upon his recent success.

Finally, the Cubs acquired Pressly for 20-year-old righty Juan Bello and got the Astros to pay down $5.5 million in salary. Pressly had been Houston’s closer until they signed Josh Hader last winter. He didn’t perform as well in a set-up role and may not be the bullpen savior Cubs fans are hoping for, according to David Schoenfield of ESPN.

“After holding opponents to an OPS in the .500 range in 2019, 2021, and 2022, that has gone up to .623 in 2023 and .718 in 2024, his highest since 2016,” Schoenfield wrote in assessing the trade. “He has always been heavy slider/curveball usage, but as his fastball velocity dropped to 93.8 mph in 2024, it got hit hard: .313 average and .500 slugging allowed, and the breaking stuff was hit a little harder as well.”

Pressly posted a 3.49 ERA with four saves and 25 holds despite those struggles. In seven years with the Astros, the righty accumulated 111 saves with a 2.81 ERA and a 1.03 WHIP. He was also Houston’s closer when they won the World Series in 2022 and has a wealth of postseason experience from his time there. Pressly is expected to be Chicago’s closer, and pitching in save situations may restore a little life to his fastball. Still, he’s a sizable upgrade to the likes of Alzolay, Neris, Yency Almonte, and José Cuas.

The common denominator of Hoyer’s acquisitions is that they excel when the game’s on the line. No bullpen is perfect, but the Cubs might have been a playoff team had they pitched better with late-inning leads. Justin Steele should be the first to hand out cigars to Chicago’s reinforcements. The lefty was 5-5 last season, but didn’t win his first game until July 5 — some of which was due to missing several weeks due to his Opening Day injury — and needed a complete game to secure that victory.

Photo of Michael Canter Michael CanterJanuary 29, 2025
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