‘Nasty’ New-Look Bullpen Among Best in MLB
Remember when the Cubs’ bullpen was so bad you had to hope the starter threw a complete game or the offense scored at least 10 runs? The stench of those first couple months of the season has lingered like a roadkill skunk, particularly with outings like the one Hector Neris had on Friday, but the relief corps has actually been really good since June. This group of castoffs and unheralded pickups is even doing enough to make you feel like maybe, just maybe, the Cubs could still do something over the last few weeks of the season.
When intermittent rain caused a pair of delays Saturday afternoon limited Justin Steele to just two innings, a series of six different relievers strung together a winning performance. Two of those, Tyson Miller and Jorge López, were acquired by the Cubs after being DFA’d by their previous teams. Nate Pearson got credit for the win less than a month after coming over from the team he beat. Drew Smyly has been pretty good as a full-time reliever a year after throwing more innings (142.1) than he had since 2016.
That workload earned the lefty an extra $4 million in bonuses and escalators, which is part of why the Cubs are looking at a strong likelihood of CBT penalties this year. But let’s get back to the point.
López has been nails since coming over from the Mets in the wake of an infamous blowup that saw him throw his glove into the crowd. In 21.2 innings over 19 appearances, he has a 0.83 ERA and 23 strikeouts with seven walks. He earned his first Cubs save on Saturday and should be in line for more with Neris ideally shifting into a lower-leverage role.
“From the young guys to the veteran guys, we’ve tried to be prepared for the most important point of the season,” López told reporters after the latest win. “Being available every day — that’s something I know Counsell wants. I know we are nasty out there and have been doing a really good job through the summer and through now. We’ll just keep focused.”
Given the success of their rotation and the early struggles of their relievers, the Cubs are 17th in MLB with 438.1 innings from the bullpen. Their 3.65 ERA is eighth in that time and their 24.3% strikeout rate is 10th, so actually pretty good on the whole. However, things really start to get good when you look at what they’ve done since the start of June.
The Cubs’ 2.74 bullpen ERA is the lowest in MLB over that time and their 223.2 innings rank 23rd. Even though their strikeout rate is down to 14th, it’s just one-tenth of a point lower than the mark above. Offsetting that is a 9.4% walk rate which, while still too high for my taste, is down from the 10.5% rate they’d pitched to through May.
Trim the split to the start of July and the Cubs’ 2.13 ERA remains the best in baseball with a 23.7% strikeout rate that is balanced by a very nice 6.9% walk rate. It’s interesting that the Cubs have only seven saves in that time, tied for 24th in the league, but that’s right in line with their season standing. Whether they can maintain this over the rest of the season remains to be seen of course, but they’ve done it for long enough now that it’s not a fluke.
Even if you’re not ready to give Craig Counsell his flowers on this one, it’s an area in which he was supposed to have represented an improvement over David Ross. Following some early struggles brought on in part by a rash of injuries, leaving the Cubs with only three remaining relievers from Opening Day, it appears the manager has found a comfort level. Now imagine what this team could have done had the front office seen fit to spend a little more money on a closer.
As good as it is to be able to breathe a little easier once the starters leave, I just hope this doesn’t provide more confidence to stick with the bargain bullpen strategy again this winter.