Goodbye, Mark Leiter Jr, The Cubs Bullpen Will Miss You

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A common sentiment echoed by millions is that you can’t truly appreciate the sweet things in life until you’ve endured the sour. If that’s true, I feel Cubs fans deserve a little more sugar by now.

Image courtesy of © Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports

The 2024 trade deadline has come and gone, and with it, the Cubs’ front office has set a course, albeit a confusing one, for this club’s future. Though several were pining for the team to do more, Isaac Paredes and a batch of prospects are in, and Christopher Morel and Mark Leiter Jr. are out. Regarding the latter, his absence will more terminally impact the direction of this ball club.

The North Side of Chicago is where, once a player earns a nickname, his departure, or even the notion of his departure, hurts a little bit more. I don’t need to rehash this club’s recent past to prove this point. Make no mistake about it: On their climb back up, the Cubs will need to uncover another reliever like Mark “Leit Show” Leiter Jr. 

I know some of you are here for stats, so I won’t make you wait any longer: In this season as a Cub, Mark Leiter Jr. clocked in 36.1 innings of work with over 50 strikeouts. For those uninitiated in the ways of relief pitching, that’s quite good. An often unspoken but no less true rule of relief pitching is that you absolutely must throw strikes to be effective.

Before switching from Cubs pinstripes to Yankees pinstripes, Leiter did exactly that with a nasty combination of his sinker and split-finger fastball. By comparison, a reliever like, say, Hector Neris walks a ton of batters and often loses control early, leading to blown saves and heartbreak in the myriad of close games the Cubs have been in this year. Throw strikes and get batters out. That’s the formula for relief pitching, even in extended situations, which the Cubs’ have experienced plenty of this season. Leiter now brings that efficiency and a clean-shaven mug to the Yankees, who look destined for postseason glory with their acquisition of Jazz Chisholm.

I’m not saying that the Cubs let one get away; Leiter is 33 years old and was on a team going nowhere, but I will say that the Cubbies need a strike-throwing, shutdown guy. You’d be hard-pressed to identify that guy in the Cubs’ bullpen right now. The Leit is out in Chicago, now, with things in a state of transition in Chicago. Who will shed light on the path forward?

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