Hello Cubs World,

My first news article will be dropping in a few days. Keep your eye out for it! In the meantime, I'm raising an issue here: What would be the BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE bullpens, if Hoyer focused solely on that issue this offseason?

It is incorrect to only add WAR and chase strikeout kings. You need a Swiss army knife approach to a good bullpen and actually squeeze more WAR from team chemistry. You need to generate matchup outs, because no team - even the Dodgers or Mets - can afford to stack the pen with all-around studs. 

Also, let's remember the injury rate of pitching - even if you've got a good bullpen, 1/3rd of them will be out of commission at any given time, so you need at least 3 more starters and 5 more relievers ready to go in AAA. Thus, its good to have a few "burner vets" on one year deals you can cut midseason, and only a few premium vets that you handpicked for their injury resilience and elite skills.  

Here's what a dream bullpen will have, to cover every possible base:

1) Every pitcher should have at least 3 pitches unless both pitches are top notch. However, we must recognize that many so-called 2 pitch pitchers have a lot of command, to the point that those 2 pitches would act like 4 pitches if both can reverse break along one plane. 

2) 3 lefties, 5 righties. This balance roughly matches the balance of left and right-handed batters. You want 1 lefty for each of the three types, below:  

3) 3 Power Pitchers. The power pitchers focus on generating Ks and whiffs. Ideally, each one of them would have a unique strikeout pitch. I would prefer one slider; 1 curve; and, 1 changeup (the lefty).  

4) 3 Junk Pitchers (1 power/junk hybrid righty). The junk pitchers focus on chases and weak contact. One righty should be a "kitchen sink" pure junk pitcher with a huge repertoire of frustrating junk to create maximum chasing. The second righty should be a power/junk hybrid that is really a groundball expert leading with a sinker (ideally, sinker, changeup, curve, akin to starter Framber Valdez). The lefty should be halfway between those two, with an emphasis on curveballs. 

5) 2 Freak pitchers. These guys use rare pitches and rare arm slots. Ideally, the righty would be a submariner leading their repertoire with a rising sinker. The lefty would be a knuckleballer with a great fastball and curve for disruption. These pitches are knuckleball, screwball, forkball, slow curve, slurve, and knuckle-curve. Combined, the account for only 3 to 4 percent of the current pitches thrown in the league.   

Now, 2 of these guys must be dedicated for long relief.... so let's further break that down. 

6) 2 Long Relievers. The lefty long reliever would be the specialty or junk type, and the righty a Power/junk hybrid. Pitching lower velocity and to weak contact, with low arm strain strikeout strategies, would be their best strategy to reliably bail out starters and handle heavy workloads.  

Would it be possible for the Cubs to build such a squad for 2026?
Almost. 

Let's take account of the Cub's current best options (top 8 pitchers in bold text, long relievers with **) 
 
Power Righties:  Daniel Palencia (fastball/slider), Ben Brown **(fastball/curveball), Jack Neely (Fastball/slider)
Power Lefty: Luke Little (fastball/sweeper), Porter Hodge (Fastball, sweeper, slider)

Power/Junk Hybrid:  Ethan Roberts (Cutter/slider/fastball), Gavin Hollowell (fastball/sweeper/sinker)
Junk Righties: Phil Maton (cutter/curve/sinker/changeup), Javier Assad **(6 pitches),
Junk Lefties:  Riley Martin (curve/fastball/slider/changeup), Jordan Wicks** (6 pitches)

Specialty Pitchers: NONE (although Imanaga has a splitter, he's a starter, and Asaad's slurve is not thrown much). 

Well..... this is not gonna cut it. Let's go through some observations. Let's go through these options in reverse order as listed above. 

1) WE NEED SPECIALITY PITCHERS. Tyler Rogers is one available submariner. I would prioritize signing him. Ironically, the only other qualifier is Caleb Theilbar, who uses his rare knuckle-curve at least 10% of the time and as a key strikeout pitch.  VERDICT: Signing Rogers (2y/ 24 mm, 3rd year option) and Theilbar (1 y 8mm) would be the fastest and best way to improve the Swiss army knife strategy.

2) WE HAVE THE JUNK RIGHTIES, BUT LEFTIES ARE SHAKY. Riley Martin is taking Jordan Wicks' job, and Maton and Assad are locks as the junk righties. There's simply no room for the both of them. Wicks is now the contingency plan. VERDICT: The Junk Righties are solid. Pursue For left, sign Hoby Milner - CHAT GPT5 thinks 1y $ 3.5 million would land the best soft contact option in free agency.   

3) THE POWER PITCHERS ARE GOOD YOUNG AND UNRELIABLE. Palencia is the only sure thing. Brown, Little, Hodge, and Neely all have a risk of burning options in AAA in 2026. This means the cubs have room to replace any of them with free agents. The only lefty available is Aroldis Chapman, and Cubs fans don't like him  VERDICT: The cubs should upgrade 1 power/hybrid pitcher...sign Robert Suarez as closer 1 to leapfrog Palencia, who throws 99 and yet has a plus changeup for groundball induction and weak contact. he would just fit into a Jed Hoyer budget (around 3 year, $50 million). Is this a true need? PROBABLY NOT, but with the kind of cash Hoyer has to burn, it is a WANT. 

Total cap hit of signings, 2026: 40 million (Kyle Tucker money). This would eliminate the pursuit of any pricey starters for 2026, but would optimize the bullpen. 

Here is what the remade bullpen would look like, with AAA callup guys in (CAPS):

POWER RIGHTIES: Palencia (BROWN), (NEELY)

POWER LEFTY: Little (HODGE)

POWER/JUNK HYBRID: Suarez (ROBERTS)

JUNK RIGHTY: Maton, Assad
JUNK LEFTY: Milner (MARTIN)

SPECIALTY: Thielbar, Rogers 

Okay, that would be a badass bullpen, and the best possible combinations that would fit under $45 million. 
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Suppose the Cubs took this strategy.  Their salary situation would sit at about $213 million.

They could then use their remaining headroom to sign Jorge Polanco as a lefty infield bat (2y. 26 mm, 12 in 2026, 3rd year mutual options). This would bring them to $225 million total outlay, which is a good figure for this year. Instead of chasing starting pitching, this strategy ensures an elite bullpen balance.  Why is this a good idea?
 

Mainly due to the Cub's really deep quality in the backup rotation. Beyond their starting five, Brown and Assad have proven they can win games; Justin Steele will be back after May 1 sometime; Walker Powell is looking quite serviceable as a mid 4 ERA junk righty, and, they Jaxson Wiggins and maybe Brandon Birdsell waiting. 

How well balanced is the rotation? Actually = it is great from a Swiss Army Knife perspective. Although some wish we had 1 more fireballer to replace Rea, I think if you stare at this long enough and look at the bullpen upgrade suggestions, you'd concur that any upgrade should be a SPECIALTY righty pitcher.  Ideally you also want 3 pitchers who would be in the top 10 list for Cy young Candidates in their League (MLB top 20), and one of those an Ace that would be top 10 in the majors. 

1 Horton  - power righty, could be 10th best MLB starter 

2 Boyd  - power/junk hybrid lefty, potentially 10-20th best

3 Imanaga - specialty lefty (splitter) potentially 10-20th best

4 Taillon - power/junk hybrid righty. potentially top 50 

5 Rea - power/junk hybrid righty. potentially top 100

IF anyone were bumped to the pen, it would be Rea. The ideal veteran starter would cost less than 10 million and be a specialty pitcher. If Hoyer finds a clever, affordable trade to upgrade over Rea, he would move to the bullpen and eliminate the need for one veteran. Ideally, this would be Hoby Milner, the least important of the additions. We would start the Season with only 2 lefties (Thielbar, Little), and call up Riley as the next guy up. Junk pitchers have a tendency to play better against both handed batters, whereas power pitchers dominate their same-handed fellows but have a bit more disadvantage opposite hand. Rea's bullpen presence would override Milner. As an aside, many arguments exist  to let more youth pitch- Milner would add just one more block to using Brown and Riley. 

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Suppose Cubs go one step further. Instead of Milner, they hire a free agent starter within budget. 

who would perfectly fit the Budget and still improve the roster over Rea? Only if Ricketts spends a bit more. But it can still be done under the salary cap and with cushion left over. 

Answer: Tyler Mahle.
I think he would take a 2 year Boyd-style contract . 13 mm first year, 17 million second, 2 mm buyout. His splitter is a plus strikeout pitch and has turned him from a mediocre starter to an Imanaga-caliber player. This would bring the total budget for the season to $235 million. It would leave open $9 million before the salary cap for making mid-season moves - and such a deep roster that there would be little need to make any!  This would be totally doable, because there's several ways they could salary dump midseason if things turn bad - on a cliffhanger year, they could have a fire sale of Happ, Suzuki, Kelly, and/or Boyd if things don't work out as hoped just like they did with the old 2016 team before the pandemic. 

OVERALL VERDICT: add Mahle, Suarez, Thielbar, and Rogers, and have Rea/Assad as swing/long relief. And Polanco. Trade away Brown, Wicks, maybe Alcantara, and any other extraneous guys so they can find their happy place. 

This, Cubs fans, is a very plausible way to build out a Swiss Army Knife Strategy within budget. There are some close variations, but they woudn't change much - such as Danny Coloumbe instead of Thielbar. 

The combined WAR value of these pitchers is estimated at about 5.5 compared to Kyle Tucker's 4.5; in addition, the combined WAR projection i Have for the Cubs' new position players is about 6 WAR due to their platoon rotation (Polanco 2, Ballesteros 1.5, Long 1, Caissie 1.5)... and this is above the -1 WAR we got from last years' bench. The total is 12.5 - 4.5 = 8 WAR gain, NOT EVEN COUNTING JUSTIN STEELE, and still under the salary cap. 

I'm still not convinced Hoyer will get to spend that much, especially on bullpen, but WHAT THE HECK ELSE would he spend it on? His position player situation is a youth movement and it would be foolish to squander that for one yar of contention.  If he could embrace this approach, this team could beat the Brewers. If he doesn't absolutely STACK the bullpen, there's little hope of a World Series run.  If they added Polanco, they would have an impressive bench (Polanco S, Long R, Caissie L) that would make everyone forget about Kyle Tucker in terms of net WAR. This Swiss Army Knife Bench would platoon regularly, allowing Suzuki to platoon as the outfield Righty against lefties, and Polanco could also help Ballesteros at DH.  

And guess what? it would add far more WAR for the same money than signing Kyle Tucker. This is about +8 WAR!!!