What, Exactly, Does Tyler Zombro Bring to the Cubs Pitching Support Staff?

Tyler Zombro has been working for Tread Athletics in Charlotte, NC. Tread is similar to the more established and famous Driveline Baseball, in that they use science and technology to unlock athletic potential. Zombro will fill a role for Chicago as a special assistant and will be involved in all aspects of the Cubs pitching going forward.

You may remember Zombro from his time in Durham, the Rays' Triple-A affiliate, where he took a 104.1-mph line drive off of his head. It was a devastating video and terrifying injury. In its wake, Zombro started a second career as a pitching adviser, rather than a pitcher, and has found success quickly.

Tread Athletics is the new Big Thing with pitchers, and right on their website is a testimonial from Cole Ragans of the Royals.  Further diving into the website shows this list of draftees and MLB pitchers who have utilized their services. For sure, Tanner Scott, Mitch Keller, Josh Hader, and Ragans are solid case studies. Even famous pitching guy Rob Friedman, aka Pitching Ninja, used Tread for his own child who is now throwing 95 miles per hour.

Zombro will be tasked, according to press releases, with working as part of the player acquisitions on the pitching side. This does seem like it will be more consulting than in instructing, but that will have to be seen as it plays out. Zombro is credited with popularizing the "Death Ball" curveball, and as a trainer, he would seem to have experience on the instruction side of pitching. It's difficult to know what exactly his role will be, but a pitching strategist can be an integral behind-the-scenes worker. Ben Brown throws the Death Ball, so Zombro might have one obvious target for small improvements, right away.

Listening to this podcast is an interesting dive into his mindset, albeit one light on details for his new role. Zombro was never highly regarded and required a lot of grit to maximize his career. One nugget gleaned from a listen-through of the podcast, which does focus more on Zombro's past and not his current role, is the stuff vs. results conversation. He does recognize the need for stuff, but also acknowledges that success can come from many different types of pitcher. 

Cubs fans, of course, know this, having watched Kyle Hendricks and his smoke-and-mirrors act for almost 10 years.  Even the starting staff in 2024 lacked the high-octane velocity of many other teams. The Cubs are further leaning in to varying methods of success in pitching. They're way out on a limb in certain areas, like being willing to trade some velocity for extreme cut-ride action on a pitcher's fastball. That seems to gibe with what Zombro believes about pitching development, too.

Under Craig Breslow from 2019 to 2023, the Cubs made gains in their pitching results and they'll look to continue this track record. With the Cubs limiting their spending on Hall of Fame quality players, success in the margins like pitching development is important for their hopes to eventually match the Dodgers, even if they refuse to behave like them.  

With pitcher acquisition, we can hope that this encourages the Cubs to look for all types of pitchers who could be successful.  This would give confidence in current pitchers in the system to thrive, as well as better identify players who can develop into long-term pieces for Chicago. As a skills coach, Zombro should be able to identify traits of players to work with and skills to hone in on.

One hope the Cubs surely have is to improve pitcher health. Justin Steele, Cade Horton, and the aforementioned Brown are valuable assets who have missed time over the past few seasons. We know Zombro has plenty of theoretical knowledge in that area, too; it's just hard to say how effective any given staff member can be in that regard.

Of course, any pitching coordinator would prefer to start off a rotation with Corbin Burnes or Max Fried, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards. The Cubs continue to move slowly toward their goal of being a successful small-market franchise, in a large market.

More will be known about this hire as we go forward. For now, welcome Tyler and I'm glad you're a part of the Cubs!