Jed Hoyer's Bullpen Thrifting Pays Endless Dividends in Cubs' Clincher Over Padres

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Image courtesy of © Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

Just yesterday, I wrote about how Jameson Taillon was a decent matchup for the San Diego Padres in Game 3 of the wild card series. I also called Taillon as a Game 3 playoff starter “underwhelming,” and threw some criticism at Jed Hoyer for not having a better contingency plan. 

I stand by that, despite the role that Taillon’s four shutout innings played in the series clinching win (seriously, how awesome was he?). Cade Horton has thrown more innings than he ever has in his professional career, and he has a fairly substantial injury history to boot. Matthew Boyd eclipsed 180 innings this week, the most he has thrown since he was a young and spry 28-year-old. 

Point being, we knew at the trade deadline it was unlikely both would be available in the playoffs. Yet, nothing was done to really address that, and thus, we had Jameson Taillon starting Game 3. That’s on Hoyer. Period.

And yet, I am actually here to send some praise Hoyer’s way. Look through my post history, and you’ll find both some approval and some condemnation heaped towards Hoyer. That’s exactly how things should be with a baseball executive who is somewhere in the middle. I believe Hoyer is something like the 10th or 12th best executive in baseball. He does a good job with what he is given, though his passivity has a tendency to drive me insane. 

That’s all for another day, though. We’re here to celebrate. The Cubs won the wild card series over the Padres by allowing only five runs. The bullpen pitched 14 ⅔ innings and gave up just two runs. They came in in the fifth inning of Game 1, held the score at 1-0, then shut the door once the Cubs grabbed the lead. They came in in the fifth inning of Game 3 with a two-run lead and shut the door on the Padres again, though things got unnecessarily complicated in the ninth.

(NOTE: I am considering Imanaga’s four innings on Wednesday as starter’s innings, and Kittredge’s one inning as a bullpen inning, since Imanaga was effectively the starter.) 

Here are the bullpen guys the Cubs used to shut the door in their two victories: Daniel Palencia, Drew Pomeranz, Andrew Kittredge, Brad Keller, and Caleb Thielbar. That’s it. That’s Craig Counsell’s tight circle of trust, and that is clearly who he is going to lean on as the playoffs continue this weekend. 

How did they acquire each of those guys?

Player	How were they acquired?
Palencia	2021 - midseason trade with Athletics for Andrew Chafin
Pomeranz	2025 - preseason trade with Mariners for cash
Kittredge	2025 - midseason trade with Orioles for Wilfri De La Cruz
Keller	2025 - preseason minor league contract
Thielbar	2025 - signed in offseason for $2.75m

We’ll exclude Palencia, since he took several years of seasoning by the Cubs before finding his stride this year. The other four were all acquired this year, and the total cost of acquiring those guys, if you factor in each of their salaries, was a low-end prospect and something like $4 million. Anyone could have had these guys. But Jed Hoyer identified them and brought them in, and it’s paying dividends for the Cubs. 

We were all kicking ourselves in the offseason when both Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates signed with the Dodgers instead of the Cubs. Those guys have a 4.74 and 5.23 ERA, respectively, and cost a combined $29 million. The bullpen is a huge area of concern for the Dodgers in these playoffs. It’s not for the Cubs precisely because Jed Hoyer did a fantastic job working in the bargain bin and continually tinkered with the bullpen as the season progressed. For once, let’s all praise him for that.

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