Cubs To Sign Right-Handed Pitcher Spencer Turnbull

[Brock Beauchamp]

The Cubs added depth by signing 32-year-old right-handed pitcher Spencer Turnbull. He will be assigned to the minor leagues to ramp back up after being released by Toronto in late June.

In 2024 with Philadelphia, Turnbull threw 54 1/3 innings of 2.65 ERA/3.85 FIP baseball, with a career-best 26.1% strikeout rate. Last season, Turnbull leaned on his new sweeper (about one-third usage), which held hitters to .145 AVG/.226 SLG and a 30.8% whiff rate. In very limited 2025 use (only 28 sweepers thrown), the results were poor.

Things have unraveled for Turnbull in 2025, with his brief stop in Toronto showing negative run value on almost all of his pitches. Turnbull, once a starter with decent velocity (93.8 mph fastball in 2021 with the Tigers), has seen his velo drop consistently and sat at just 90.9 mph with the Blue Jays early this year.

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[Bertz]

I really liked Turnbull over the winter.  He's a great guy to sign and stash at Iowa.  I think you can hope that better health gets his fastball back to the 92-93 range and with it bring back some effectiveness.

It's also good to make a signing like this now because they're likely going to lose Flexen entirely in a few weeks when he presumably gets bumped off the MLB roster for a trade acquisition.

[Rcal10]

On 7/18/2025 at 12:18 PM, Bertz said:

I really liked Turnbull over the winter.  He's a great guy to sign and stash at Iowa.  I think you can hope that better health gets his fastball back to the 92-93 range and with it bring back some effectiveness.

It's also good to make a signing like this now because they're likely going to lose Flexen entirely in a few weeks when he presumably gets bumped off the MLB roster for a trade acquisition.

Wouldn’t Kriste and Roberts go before Flexen? Even if Brown is brought up for one of those guys, if the Cubs only add one pitcher wouldn’t the other guy go before Flexen?