Cubs Hire Tyler Zombro

[Brian Kelder]

Good teams stop at nothing, trying to find and create advantages over the competition. The Cubs have not been a good team, but they want to be one! With that in mind, they're reportedly set to hire a special assistant they hope will be a boon to their pitching development.

Image courtesy of © Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

Tyler Zombro has been working for Tread Athletics in Charlotte, NC. Tread is similar to the more established and famous Driveline in that they use science and technology to unlock athletic potential. Zombro will fill a role for Chicago as a special assistant and will be involved in all aspects of the Cubs pitching going forward.

You may remember Zombro from his time in Durham, the Rays' Triple-A affiliate, where he took a 104.1 -mph line drive off of his head. It was a devastating video and terrifying injury. In its wake, Zombro started a second career as a pitching adviser, rather than a pitcher, and has found success quickly.

Tread Athletics is the new Big Thing with pitchers, and right on their website is a testimonial from Cole Ragans of the Royals.  Further diving into the website shows this list of draftees and MLB pitchers who have utilized their services.  For sure, Tanner Scott, Mitch Keller, Josh Hader, and Ragans are solid case studies.  Even famous pitching guy Rob Friedman, aka Pitching Ninja, used Tread for his own child who is now throwing 95 miles per hour. 

Zombro will be tasked, according to press releases, with working as part of the player acquisitions on the pitching side.  This does seem like it will be more consulting than in instructing, but that will have to be seen as it plays out.  Zombro is credited with popularizing the "Death Ball" pitch and as a trainer would seem to have experience on the instruction side of pitching.  It's difficult to know what exactly his role will be, but a pitching strategist can be an integral behind the scenes worker.

Listening to this podcast is an interesting dive into his mindset, albeit one light on details for his new role.  Zombro was never highly regarded and required a lot of grit to maximize his career.  One nugget gleaned from a listen of the podcast, which does focus more on Zombro's past and not his current role, is the stuff vs. results conversation.  He does recognize the need for stuff, but also acknowledges that success can come from many different types of pitcher. 

Cubs fans of course know this having watched Kyle Hendricks and his smoke and mirrors act for almost ten years.  Even the Cubs starting staff in 2024 lacked the high octane velocity of many other teams.  The Cubs are further leaning in to varying methods of success in pitching.  

The Cubs under Craig Breslow from 2019 to 2023 made gains in their pitching results and they surely will look to continue this track record.   With the Cubs limiting their spending on Hall of Fame quality players, success in the margins like pitching development is important for their hopes to overtake the Dodgers, even if they refuse to behave like them.  

With pitcher acquisition we can hope that this encourages the Cubs to look for all types of pitchers who could be successful.  This would give confidence in current pitchers in the system to thrive, as well as better identify players who can develop into long term pieces for Chicago.  As a skills coach, Zombro should be able to identify traits of players to work with and skills to hone in on.  

One hope the Cubs surely have is to improve pitcher health.  The aforementioned Steele, Cade Horton, and Ben Brown are valuable assets who have missed time over the past few seasons.  With an esteemed trainer who theoretically would not want his clients having large amounts of Tommy John in their lives, the Cubs are seeking to tap into this experience.  
 

Now this move is not all sunshine and lollipops.  It's well established that the team will not be spending to try to find that elusive top of rotation starter.  This is further diving in to the margins that Jed Hoyer talks about.  He doesn't mean finding value on the open market for players;  he's married to his process and is trying to utilize the best possible assets to make his process better.  This is also added to a firm hired to reduce injury.  The Cubs are adding on the margins, just in a way that won't be immediately seen by fans.  Time will be the only way fans will see if the moves pay dividends.

This certainly is not the most fan pleasing or exciting way to go about running an offseason.  It would be far more exciting to announce a big name player signing.  With this hire, and the Craig Counsell hire last offseason, the Cubs are announcing their intentions.  They believe in how to build a team and are willing to invest heavily in the infrastructure.  The unfortunate side effect is that they are becoming progressively more like a small market team and farther away from flexing their financial muscle.  Large free agent signings are not part of the plan;  developing and maximizing their own is.  While this is a laudable goal, the best teams do both.

Of course, any pitching coordinator would prefer to start off a rotation with Corbin Burnes or Max Fried, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards.  The Cubs continue to move slowly toward their path of being a successful small market franchise in a large market.

More will be known about this hire as we go forward.  For now, welcome Tyler and I'm glad you're a part of the Cubs!  

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