Chicago Cubs continue stockpiling arms, add three new pitchers

Over the last four days, the Cubs added three new arms to add to a growing list of reserve pitchers picked up over the last few weeks.

On Monday, it was reported by Tread Athletic that the Cubs had signed former Mariners reliever Trent Thornton to a minor league deal.

The 32-year-old right-hander, who was recently DFA’d by Seattle, struggled last season, posting a 4.68 ERA over 33 appearances before tearing his Achilles in July. In the two seasons prior to that, however, he delivered a combined 3.13 ERA over 98 games in 2023 and 2024 with the Mariners and the Blue Jays.

Over the weekend, Chicago also acquired 32-year-old right-hander Yacksel Rios on a minor league deal.

The native of Puerto Rico has struggled to deliver on any of his promise at the major league level, posting a 6.32 ERA over parts of 6 big league seasons, but his high strikeout rate has always garnered attention as someone to watch. After a string of injuries that hobbled him last season, Rios’ fastball velocity rose from 95 mph to 97 mph upon his return.

On Friday, the Cubs also picked up left-hander Charlie Barnes, signing him to a minor league deal.

Primarily a starter throughout his career, the 30-year-old has pitched abroad since a disastrous major league debut with the Twins in 2021. In four seasons with the Lotte Giants in Korea, Barnes notched a 3.58 ERA over 99 games started.

Continued stockpiling of arms

The latest signings add to the continued effort to stockpile arms right below the major league level in an attempt to replicate the success the team has had in rehabilitating and re-purposing pitchers whose production hadn’t lived up to their physical promise. Last season, the team benefited greatly from the surprise performances of under-the-radar arms such as Brad Keller, Drew Pomeranz, Chris Flexen, and Aaron Civale.

So far, just in the month of January alone, the Cubs have picked up pitchers Ryan Rolison, Tyler Beede, John Brigham, Tyler Ras, and Corbin Martin in addition to Thornton, Rios, and Barnes to beef up the pool of emergency backup pitching reserves.

The Tread Athletic pipeline

Many of the new pickups have come via player development company Tread Athletic, which specializes in high-level pitching performance. The recent promotion of Tyler Zombro, a former Tread Athletic advisor and a key component in the career rebound of Brad Keller, to vice president of Cubs pitching has created a direct pipeline to top Tread projects.

Last year, the Cubs struggled with pitching depth late in the season, something which proved to be a real hurdle as the team advanced in the playoffs.

Hoyer, himself, admitted that this was an issue that needed to be addressed the coming season.

“Obviously, at the end, with some injuries and the nature of the series we played, I think there was probably some depth that we could have used on the pitching staff,” Hoyer said during October’s season wrap-up press conference. “That’s an area that we’ll always continue to try to focus on.”