The Cubs’ bullpen is beginning to take shape and with the regular season two weeks away, the final spots in that pen are starting to become clearer. The bullpen started slow for the Cubs during the shortened 60-game season, but finished as one of the best bullpens in baseball late in the season with a 2.32 ERA over its last 27 games.
The bullpen has little turnover and with some of the additions late in the offseason, the Cubs believe they have a group that can achieve similar success in 2021.
“I don’t want to underestimate the pitching core,” manager David Ross said. “I think we’ve got some sneaky good pitchers that may not be on the radar. But there’s definitely a willingness to be great from that group.
“I’m seeing more depth than I thought we had from some of the pickups in the offseason to these guys’ performance. Even sending some of these guys down. There’s a lot of talent here on the pitching side.”
From the right-side, things are pretty much set. Craig Kimbrel, Brandon Workman, Jason Adam and Dan Winkler can all be penciled into the Cubs’ bullpen. Ryan Tepera, who signed a Major League deal last month, is also likely to get a spot.
The swingman role is where things become interesting. Non-roster invitee Shelby Miller has had a strong camp with a 1.29 ERA in seven innings with eight strikeouts and two walks. The 30-year-old right-hander may have pitched himself into a role to start the year.
Whoever loses the fifth-starter competition between Alec Mills and Adbert Alzolay would also have a swingman role. If Alzolay has a remaining minor-league option, he could start the season at the team’s alternate site.
“I think it’s going to take a lot of different arms to pitch big innings for us with the limited innings they were able to throw last year,” Ross said. “Bullpen depth is always an important piece of any championship caliber team. And if you want to get to where you want to go through 162, you’re going to need multiple arms down there in the bullpen.”
One of the decisions Cubs have to make over the final two weeks of camp will be if they’ll carry one lefty in the bullpen to start the season or two. Last season, the Cubs had just one southpaw in the bullpen before the team acquired Andrew Chafin at the trade deadline.
Chafin is a lock to be in the bullpen, but left-handers Brad Wieck and Rex Brothers could be vying for an additional spot. The team optioned left-hander Kyle Ryan to Triple-A Iowa on Friday.
Wieck has been getting back into game action after having a setback with a hamstring injury early in camp. Brothers has had a strong camp, throwing five scoreless innings with five strikeouts.
“There’s more than just one lefty in the mix. I think for sure,” Ross said. “I think there’s guys that are putting themselves on the radar for sure.
“I think there’s always going to be value from left-handers. You need a mix. We didn’t use a lot of those guys last year just for certain reasons. Guys not being completely healthy and then picking up Chafin right there the back end of the season. But I think it’s nice to have multiple left handers down there. But I think it’s about just having guys that can get guys out in general is really the main thing.”
What may ultimately determine the Cubs’ bullpen to start the season may be roster crunch on the bench. The Cubs may lean toward having a five-man bench, which would mean they would only carry 12 pitchers. If that’s the case, shifting toward versatility and arms that can throw multiple innings may be a deciding factor in who makes the roster and who doesn’t.
“We want to get all these guys extended to get them multiple innings,” pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said. “But we see them all late-inning leverage relievers, too. So it’s kind of balancing that through spring, giving them opportunities to get up and down multiple times, but also like coming in leverage situations now that we can’t roll innings and we have to do all these things.”
