The Truly Mystifying, Historic Starts of Chris Flexen and Drew Pomeranz's Cubs Careers

[Matthew Trueblood]

Image courtesy of © Patrick Gorski-Imagn Images

If the smoke doesn't clear and the mirrors don't break for just another week or so, Drew Pomeranz and Chris Flexen will stand alone in Cubs history. Even if their magic can't keep up any longer, though, they've already left a mark in the team's history books. Since 1975, the three longest scoreless streaks to begin a Cubs career by a relief pitcher are:

• Wade Davis, 2017: 17 1/3 innings
• Flexen, 2025: 16 1/3 innings
• Pomeranz, 2025: 14 2/3 innings

Even if you're willing to go back five decades or more, there are just a few instances of a newcomer to the Cubs relief corps going longer before allowing their first run: Dick Selma (18 2/3 innings, 1969), Ted Abernathy (18 innings, 1965) and Jack Aker (18 innings, 1972). It's stunning that both Flexen (signed to a minor-league deal in February, after spring training began and Javier Assad's oblique strain first set back the rotation) and Pomeranz (picked up in a cash deal with Seattle on April 21) are even on the roster, let alone 31 innings into the project of boosting the bullpen without allowing an earned run. They're third and eighth on the team in win probability added (WPA) for pitchers, with a combined 1.2 that outstrips any individual Cubs hurler. (Shota Imanaga and Jameson Taillon are tied with 1.0 WPA apiece; they're the only ones with a better figure than Pomeranz's 0.8 so far this year.)

Flexen has been used exclusively in low-leverage situations, save one appearance in which he was asked to absorb extra innings against the Rockies. Yet, he's performed perfectly, and the Cubs are 5-4 in games in which he pitches. (They even won that game against Colorado, when he allowed just one unearned run (the automatic runner) in two frames.) Pomeranz has a handful of high-leverage appearances, but has mostly been used to soak up middle relief work, too. Yet, the team is 9-7 when he pitches, too.

It takes a special season for even one pitcher to show up and have such a long streak without giving up a run. That this year's team has two such guys is almost unfathomable. Flexen, like fellow scrap-heap signing Brad Keller, was a starter just last year. Pomeranz is appearing for the first time in the big leagues since 2021, and he didn't add two miles per hour or a new pitch. In fact, his stuff is down a tick, just as you'd guess after four years, and he still just throws a fastball and an overhand curve.

At least Pomeranz has always had bat-missing stuff, with the fastball and curve stretching hitters' zone vertically and playing off each other so well that his strikeout rate of 28.3% is roughly in line with his career norms as a reliever. It's still hard to figure out how his walk rate is just 5.7%, and he's giving up a bunch of hard contact in the air, but he can strike people out. Flexen has a wide arsenal, and has been willing to deploy it even in a relief role, but his fastball is one of the fattest pitches in baseball. He should be getting hit way harder than he is, especially given his lousy 16.7% strikeout rate.

Yet, there they both are. This isn't sustainable. The Cubs will need reinforcements for the relief corps, and it's unlikely that either Pomeranz or Flexen (let alone both) make a playoff roster for this team. It doesn't matter. Just by showing up and pitching as well as they already have, they've given the team a big boost.

From here, a .500 record would get the Cubs into the postseason, and it might well win them the NL Central. That won't be their goal, of course, but in the long season, it's hugely valuable to work ahead. Flexen and Pomeranz have helped them get about a week ahead of schedule, from a wins perspective. If they crash out from here, it won't even matter much. They're still not being truly relied upon. The workload they've each taken on and the scoreless innings they've given while the team chipped away at early deficits or finished off blowout wins have already provided an advantage that can't be easily erased. Somehow, without missing many bats and with stuff that should be getting hit pretty hard, Flexen and Pomeranz have become symbols of the ways this Cubs team is soaring beyond its recent foibles and ensconcing itself in the top echelon of the league.

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[Arlen]

Start 'em and see how it plays, out, Craig.

[Brock Beauchamp]

2 hours ago, Arlen said:

Start 'em and see how it plays, out, Craig.

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