Cubs Can't Rely On Jacob Webb As Closer Understudy Unless He Fixes His Most Glaring Flaw

[Jeremy Tecktiel]

Image courtesy of © Jeff Le-Imagn Images

With Daniel Palencia out, the Chicago Cubs turned to Jacob Webb in the ninth inning against the Colorado Rockies. Is he the de facto closer now? Should he be? 

Webb is primarily a two-pitch pitcher, throwing his fastball and changeup far more than any other pitches. The fastball simply has not gotten the job done this year; it's been hit harder than ever, against both right-handed and left-handed hitters. 

Still, Webb has gotten away with it for the most part against left-handed hitters due to a changeup that has been very effective. He has not, however, seen the same results with his changeup against righties, leading to some ugly opposite-handed platoon splits. 

Webb seems to be searching for answers for his secondary pitch against that split. He used the sweeper as his secondary pitch to righties last season and carried that into early this season. It had pretty disastrous results early on and he has not thrown it since April 19, shelving it in favor of a curveball at that point. But he only threw the curveball until May 22 and has barely thrown it since. Although he didn’t allow a hit off of it, the average exit velocity was 96.2 mph, indicating that he was lucky with his results. Since May 22, he has used a slider as his breaking option. It’s a brief sample, but he has only allowed one single and has an exit velocity of 82.6 mph off the pitch. Clearly, Webb is still trying to figure out how to get outs against right-handed hitters.     

Craig Counsell knows this and game-plans around it. Jacob Webb has faced 82 lefties this season and just 53 righties. The former have taken around 48% of the PA in MLB this year, yet Webb is facing almost 61% lefties. 

Webb has been solid this year, and he absolutely can be useful against lefty-heavy lineups, but it seems clear he won’t be a closer if he continues to be hidden from righties. If he is expected to close games, he’s going to need to find a way to consistently win plate appearances when he has the handedness advantage. The Cubs better hope Palencia’s IL trip is a short one, lest they put Webb in a situation that exposes his fatal flaw.

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