Bullpen Transactions

[Bull]

I did not see a post for Braiser activated and Roberts optioned yesterday.

Additionally Merriweather DFA'd and Kriske selected today.

 

This is not a push for megathreads, but they're better than nothreads.

[Donzo]

15 hours ago, Bull said:

This is not a push for megathreads, but they're better than nothreads.

Good Idea. It's good to have one thread for the bullpen shuffle. I think past threads were called the Iowa shuttle.

It was time for the Merriweather move. He's been bad the last two seasons.

I was thinking Little would get the next call up. I guess they want him to stack some successs in Iowa.

 

Edited May 25, 2025 by Donzo
SVG error

[Bertz]

Presumably taking Kriske's spot.

 

[Derwood]

Do we know why he was DFA’d?

[Post Count Padder]

He's been a relatively decent lefty for a few years. Worth a shot. 

[mul21]

20 minutes ago, Derwood said:

Do we know why he was DFA’d?

I know he hates the Cardinals for the way they treated him, so that's a plus.

[ryanrc]

On 5/28/2025 at 12:21 AM, Bertz said:

Presumably taking Kriske's spot.

 

Yeah, I like the IDEA of this guy.... but.... he's gonna need some pitch lab work to be reliable. He's got a great 5 pitch mix, throws hard (96 sinker/97 4seam) except only 2 of pitches are working in 2025 (curve, cutter).... 

On the other hand, I think he can easily get better results by focusing on these two.
His sinker and 4-seamer are being pummeled, because he either throws a ball or a juicy strike....
 
Sinker 30%  Curve 27% 4 Seam 19% Cutter 19% Splitter 5%

All he has to do is make the following change and he's a plus arm:
Cutter 35%  Curve 35% 4 Seam 10% Sinker 10% Splitter 10% 

Basically the cutter and curve can be thrown for strikes all over the zone. The 4 seam works to catch batters off-tempo on the cutter, and should only be thrown high and inside on a batter. It only works there.  
And the sinker (vs L) and splitter (vs R) can aim exclusively for the bottom corners. So, by focusing on junk, and only using the velocity pitches to paint the corners, he could be a nasty solution. 

We really needed a lefty in the pen with a complicated set of pitches, and I've been dying for a guy with a serviceable cutter-dominant profile. He's that guy- his cutter could be thrown 50 percent of the time and he'd be serviceable with just the 4 pitches I want Ben Brown to throw (cutter, curve, 4-seam, split/change). 
 

[jersey cubs fan]

On 5/28/2025 at 12:21 AM, Bertz said:

Presumably taking Kriske's spot.

 

[Post Count Padder]

Kriske indeed DFA'd for Genesis. No Land of Confusion there.

[Bertz]

It's not worth a separate rumor thread but the Athletic this AM made it sound like the team wants to bring Jorge Lopez back

[Post Count Padder]

Tyson Miller DFA'd. Maybe I'm not looking into it enough but that perplexes me a little. He was great last year. Does he just look worse than his numbers indicate in Iowa?

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Miller is basically Scott Effross, someone who gets by with guile and deception/arm angle more than stuff.  As such he's never gonna be a guy who you want handling leverage innings, and it's become pretty crowded for a middle reliever without options in the current pen so they're willing to let him go and ride with one of the other similar options.

[Bertz]

Honestly even setting aside his struggles Miller's spot was probably at least a little warm the moment they signed Brasier.  Can't carry a ton of ROOGYs at once.

[Rcal10]

1 hour ago, Bertz said:

Honestly even setting aside his struggles Miller's spot was probably at least a little warm the moment they signed Brasier.  Can't carry a ton of ROOGYs at once.

Very tue. Miller is a perfect example of a typical middle relief pitcher. Cubs took a flyer on him last year and he was good. Doesn’t mean he will be good this year. Middle relief is just the hardest position to fill on a team. 
 

Edited June 5, 2025 by Rcal10

[Rcal10]

Update on where the Cubs one currently stands. 10th in MLB and 3rd in the NL. Pretty good for just picking up a bunch of rejects.
But I do have a question. In a game like yesterday where a team uses an opener, does his inning go towards starter stats and the guy (in this case, Rea) who comes in have his stats considered stats for the pen? Did the Cubs pen work 8 innings yesterday? 

[Bull]

36 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

Update on where the Cubs one currently stands. 10th in MLB and 3rd in the NL. Pretty good for just picking up a bunch of rejects.
But I do have a question. In a game like yesterday where a team uses an opener, does his inning go towards starter stats and the guy (in this case, Rea) who comes in have his stats considered stats for the pen? Did the Cubs pen work 8 innings yesterday? 

Yes, Pomeranz will have a GS on his Baseball Reference page forever, Rea will not.

When you sort by innings as reliever you will include Rea's numbers and not Pomeranz'. Until someone makes the decision to add an "opens" stat, what else can you do? And even then, what's the limit? One inning is an opener, 4 is a starter, but 2? 3? "Openers" is just dumb and breaks everything and I hate it.  But also its awesome?

[Derwood]

Is Cabrera the odd man out once Porter Hodge comes back?

[Bertz]

38 minutes ago, Derwood said:

Is Cabrera the odd man out once Porter Hodge comes back?

I think it might depend on whether it's Rea or one of the kids getting the boot from the rotation for Shota.  If Rea is heading to the pen you can probably dump Flexen now.  Otherwise yeah I think Cabrera goes because Craig seems to really value having a long guy.

[Rcal10]

8 hours ago, Bertz said:

I think it might depend on whether it's Rea or one of the kids getting the boot from the rotation for Shota.  If Rea is heading to the pen you can probably dump Flexen now.  Otherwise yeah I think Cabrera goes because Craig seems to really value having a long guy.

I think Cabrera will be the first to go when either Imanaga or Hodge comes back. After that a real decision needs to be made for the second pitcher to take action on. Is it Horton or Brown to AAA or Flexen released? If I had to guess, if Flexen is still getting the job done when this decision has to be made the Cubs will send Brown down. Limit his innings a bit and let him work on a 3rd pitch. I still think he can be a good starter, so the demotion isn’t because of his ability. It would be more to limit innings and monitor him closely. 

[jb10194]

Here's some stats since 5/7 (the day after Pressly imploded) - a combined 4 ER in the last 90 1/3 for these 6.

Palencia 1.65 ERA 16.1 IP
Keller 0.48 ERA 18.2 IP
Pressly 0.00 ERA 15 IP
Thielbar 0.00 ERA 13 IP
Flexen 0.00 ERA 14.1 IP
Pomeranz 0.00 ERA 13.0 IP

[Tryptamine]

18 minutes ago, jb10194 said:

Here's some stats since 5/7 (the day after Pressly imploded) - a combined 4 ER in the last 90 1/3 for these 6.

Palencia 1.65 ERA 16.1 IP
Keller 0.48 ERA 18.2 IP
Pressly 0.00 ERA 15 IP
Thielbar 0.00 ERA 13 IP
Flexen 0.00 ERA 14.1 IP
Pomeranz 0.00 ERA 13.0 IP

We're starting to reach a sample size where it might not just be fluke hot streak and it might be the Cubs have figured something out. 

[muntjack]

The bullpen has been better, but why are we using ERA to measure relievers?  Often these guys are tasked with keeping inherited runners from scoring.  A difficult task, but a critical one that ERA doesn't measure.

[squally1313]

Feel like there's been a pretty clear directive to just Throw Strikes. Over that stretch referenced above we're only 25th in K rate, but we're 2nd in BB rate. 8th in BABIP, which implies some luck but our defense is good so I'm comfortable projecting continued upper half performance there. We have the lowest HR/FB rate in that stretch, so you'll have to expect we'll come back down to earth on that a little bit, and we are stranding guys at a very unsustainable pace. FIP and xFIP are both still top 6, but ERA is first by almost a run.

Basically, we've metrically performed like a very good bullpen, and results wise performed like Mariano Rivera. Hopefully when we fall back to very good (or, given the grab bag nature of bullpens, somewhere around average), the offense bounces back or Shota/new starter improve the rotation, or we're just so far ahead it doesn't really matter. 

[We Got The Whole 9]

Cabrera has given up like 40% of the pen's runs since then

[Tryptamine]

If the Cubs are going to grab a pen arm, and at this point it is a luxury and shouldn't be a priority, it needs to be a pen arm that misses a lot of bats. They have a lot of guys who are good to great this year, but they don't have that lockdown monster who can keep guys from putting the ball in play when they need to. The Cub pen is 2nd to last in baseball in K/9 at 7.52. Right now they have 1 pen arm who exceeds 9K/9 and that's Palencia. That's super unusual.