Chicago Cubs: The rocky road to the best bullpen in baseball

But the reality is that the Cubs bullpen, at least as it is right now, is pretty damn solid. As a matter of fact, per The Athletic, since April 19, the Cubs have the best bullpen in baseball, sporting a 2.44 ERA– and that includes Ryan Pressly’s disastrous 8-earned run appearance against the San Francisco Giants on May 6.

As of Sunday morning, they haven’t allowed an earned run in 22 innings of relief and there are a couple of prominent names in the pen, now with double-digit innings pitched, still sporting a 0.00 ERA.

Unexpected Treasures

Managing a bullpen and maneuvering it to success is tough, a little like trying to tame waves of a raging tsunami. Of the eight bullpen pitchers on the 26-man roster right now, only three were on the domestic opening day roster. Brad Keller was a non-roster invitee to spring training. Drew Pomeranz and Chris Flexen were not even on anyone’s radar coming into the 2025 season. Free agent pickup Caleb Thielbar was thought of as a minor acquisition, but he’s proven to be a tremendous asset, currently sporting a 2.29 ERA in 23 appearances.

“Look, Brad Keller’s pitching wonderfully,” Cubs manager Counsell told The Athletic. “He’s doing a heck of a job, and that was a great addition. Drew’s been awesome, and Drew’s handled the role of whatever we’ve asked of him. He’s done a great job of it. We’re pitching really well, particularly in the bullpen.”

The team’s current closer Daniel Palencia, with his 100+ mph fastball and his 1.74 ERA, wasn’t even on the big league roster until mid-April, but he’s managed to leapfrog offseason acquisition Pressly and the injured Porter Hodge for the shutdown gig.

The Secret To Bullpen Success

“Just always having options,” Counsell said, regarding the key to having a successful bullpen. “By that, I mean it’s a hard job and there tends to be some performance variance. I think Daniel is a great example of this. It didn’t go great for him last year. But there’s every reason to be excited about what he could provide. A lot of times that’s how you have to look at those guys. You just want to have as many of them as you can. Our job is to get them to the place that he’s in right now and keep him there for as long as we can.”

And there’s reason to believe that the bullpen could find significant reinforcement in the coming weeks/months.

Ryan Brasier was recently reactivated and has yet to allow an earned run in four appearances. The team recently picked up former New York Met Genesis Cabrera. Hodge will be back at some point. When Shota Imanaga returns to the rotation, there will also be one more long relief arm added to the pool of relievers. Then, there’s the veteran Pressly, whose metrics are down, but who has also yet to surrender an earned run in his eight appearances and seven innings since his May 6 disaster.

Plus, there’s also the trade deadline and who might be picked up by then.

So, this bullpen weakness is actually not so much of a weakness after all. Tons of credit has to go to Counsell and to pitching coach Tommy Hottovy for managing this moving mess of ebbs and flows. Credit also has to go to the front office for picking up quality pieces on the fly.

Now, we just cross our fingers that it all holds together.