Tyler Zombro Provides ‘Kick’ in Cubs Front Office, Eventually Wants to Run an Organization

Photo of Evan Altman Evan AltmanJanuary 8, 2025

Putting out more than one piece about a new front office hire who isn’t running baseball ops might seem like a bit much, but Tyler Zombro is a different kind of cat. Besides, he could very well be the top dog for an MLB organization at some point in the near future. I can already hear people asking whether he can just take over for Jed Hoyer tomorrow. Though Zombro only officially retired from pitching after the 2023 season, his esteem in the baseball ops world meant the Cubs had to get very aggressive in order to beat out other teams looking to pry him loose from Tread Athletics.

Sahadev Sharma has the full story over at The Athletic and I’d urge you to check it out if you’ve got a subscription. For those of you who can’t or don’t want to take that step, I can tell you that the excellent article serves to confirm and flesh out pretty much everything we’ve already theorized (here, here, and here) about Zombro’s role and expertise. There is a bit more though, specifically regarding his aspirations.

First, let’s take a look at how Zombro incorporates the concepts of individuality and motor preferences into pitching evaluation and development.

“Every athlete is built differently,” Zombro told The Athletic. “To tie this back in with my premed major, you start at the ground floor of the guy’s anatomy, his physiology, his range of motion on each joint, how he moves. You have to take every piece of evidence — from anatomical range of motion, how the guy’s built, his injury history, how does that impact how he moves biomechanically, and ultimately, how does that change how he applies force to the ball and how do we maximize what he individually can do. That looks different for every pitcher.”

I love this so much and think the application of the concepts espoused here could yield a tremendous impact on Cubs pitchers for years to come. Keep in mind, however, that we may be talking about incremental growth that only shows up when you zoom out enough to identify long-term trends or zoom in to spot more granular details. We’re talking about a few percentage points of spin efficiency or a change in pitch sequencing/usage based on someone’s arm slot and natural tendency to pronate or supinate.

The video below is a deep dive into how pitchers’ arsenals can best be crafted to suit their particular biases.

If you want something a little simpler and shorter, here’s Zombro talking about how throwing a changeup with two-seam orientation can help pitchers whether they pronate or cut it.

While this information and expertise will apply to the entirety of the organization, I can’t help but fixate on the potential for Justin Steele to finally figure out his changeup. That’s something he’s been working on throughout his professional career, and I talked with him about it at CubsCon in 2020 when he had yet to make his MLB debut. After throwing the offspeed less than 2% of the time through his first three seasons, the lefty upped its usage to 3.3% last year with decent results.

Finding a more consistent grip or better way to sequence it with his other offerings could ratchet Steele up another notch to the point where he’s brushing even closer to ace territory or securing his place there. I’m not sure whether Steele is still throwing it the same way as he was back then, but he initially modeled his changeup after Cole Hamels‘ elite offering after picking the former Cub’s brain during spring training. Hamels had a pretty traditional circle grip with a four-seam orientation that saw the ball rotated forward with the middle finger along the inside of the horseshoe.

Image via FanGraphs. Also, clip those nails, Cole.

I wonder whether Steele might benefit from going with a two-seam version, specifically more of the kick-change iteration Tread has become known for over the last year or so. It’s not for everyone, but pitchers who have a feel for it are able to “kick” the ball’s spin axis down in order to create more depth than they might otherwise be able to achieve.

Pretty heady stuff, huh? What I like most about the explanation above from Leif Strom and the quote from Zombro further above is the idea that none of this should be forced. It doesn’t matter what level of baseball we’re talking about, there’s a pervasive idea of getting players to conform to regimented sets of preferred movement patterns or pitch types. The kick-change is something Tread teaches, but they know it’s not going to work for everyone.

That same kind of adaptability could lead Zombro further up the ladder as he follows Craig Breslow‘s footsteps. I’d be willing to bet a very large sum of money that Hoyer presented Breslow’s rise to Chief Baseball Officer of the Red Sox as a template for Zombro’s future as part of the recruiting process.

“As of right now, I think I’m driven to be a (general manager or team president),” Zombro said. “I know there are things I need to learn with the intricacies of that and there’s also a ton of value that I need to contribute from a (player development) lens. But I think where Chicago differed is they did a really good job of getting creative on how I can best be utilized with my skill sets…

“So being able to encapsulate all of that and working hand in hand with (pitching coach Tommy Hottovy and assistant pitching coach Casey Jacobson) at the big-league level, too, there was no other offer that was going to free me up to do that to the best of my ability. I just really believed in the people and the infrastructure of how we’re seeking to quantify initiatives.”

Despite the heaping helping of word salad, there’s plenty to like about the way Zombro approaches things and, presumably, the latitude he’s been given to tweak or even overhaul some of what the Cubs have been doing. That’s in keeping with the way the front office has redesigned things to be more analytical, though I don’t think this is a matter of removing humanity from their processes. While the Cubs may be a little more “emotionless” in their overall strategy, Zombro clearly operates with the understanding that pitchers are unique individuals who must be developed organically.

The only thing I don’t like about all of this is that I can see this guy quickly gaining enough notoriety to be poached by another organization, leaving the Cubs searching for a capable replacement. But that’s not something we need to worry about right away, and it’s not out of the question for Zombro to be in line for an internal promotion depending on how the coming season unfolds.

Apologies to those who aren’t as giddy about this behind-the-scenes stuff, it’s just that, well, there’s nothing on stage to draw our attention at this point.

Photo of Evan Altman Evan AltmanJanuary 8, 2025
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