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    NEWS: Cubs Sign Right-Handed Reliever Jacob Webb to One-Year Contract

    The Cubs have added to their bullpen by signing Jacob Webb. How might the right handed pitcher fit into the bullpen?
    Jason Ross

    By Jason Ross

    Image courtesy of Arianna Grainey-Imagn Images

    Cubs Video

    On Tuesday, the Chicago Cubs agreed to a contract with right handed reliever Jacob Webb, formerly of the Texas Rangers. The contact, as reported by Patrick Mooney, is a one-year deal with an option for 2027. 

    Jacob Webb had a successful 2025 season with the Texas Rangers, as the 32-year old posted a 3.00 ERA over 66 innings. Webb features a fastball that sits around 93-mph while featuring a changeup and a sweeper. The reliever saw his K% drop from around 24% to 21% last year but still gets a lot of weak contact and forces hitters to get under the ball. One thing the pitcher does well; he gets pop-outs, inducing 21 of them last season.

    Webb did a great job of limiting damage across all three of his offerings last season, with xwOBA's on his three major offerings all under the .300 level with a .291 on the fastball, a .265 on his changeup, and a .257 on his sweeper. Because of his changeup, Webb actually had reverse splits last year, limiting lefties to a .243 wOBA in total (and has a better wOBA against LHH over his career). 

    Screenshot 2025-12-23 131413.png

    While the team has not added a "major" reliever to their bullpen, the Cubs have added a handful of useful arms between Phil Maton, Hoby Milner, Caleb Thielbar and now Jacob Webb to help stabilize their pen. Webb likely won't settle into a back-end role, but could help to stabilize the middle-innings and could give the Cubs more match-up-options with his reverse splits.

    As well, Webb represents another contract that should not break the bank at $1,500,000, allowing the Cubs the flexibility this offseason on who or what their "big additions" could be. Tatsuya Imai or Alex Bregman both remain more-than-in-play from a salary standpoint after this contract.

    What do you think of the addition of Jacob Webb? Do you think he will help bring stability into the middle-innings? Sound off in the comments below!

    If you enjoy my articles, don't miss the North Side Baseball Podcast that I co-host weekly with Mitch Widmeier. We talk minor league baseball, current Cubs issues, and a bunch of things in between.

     

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    Bertz

    Bertz 2,652

    Posted

    Babe hold all my calls a new Eli Morgan just dropped 

    Cromulent 7th inning guy, appears to be a legitimate soft contact artist.  Curious if there are any pitch design changes to try and coax out more swing and miss or if he's just a matchup guy with that changeup.

    • Like 1
    • Love 1
    Jason Ross

    Jason Ross 2,540

    Posted

    6 minutes ago, Bertz said:

    Babe hold all my calls a new Eli Morgan just dropped 

    Cromulent 7th inning guy, appears to be a legitimate soft contact artist.  Curious if there are any pitch design changes to try and coax out more swing and miss or if he's just a matchup guy with that changeup.

    Yep! This is another one of those "guys who just get outs" that you can drop into the 6th/7th inning mix. Nothing special, but another cheap contract that allows you to remain flexible financially for whatever else you want to do.

    Feels like equally a move you'd be hard pressed to be excited about or upset about. 

    Jason Ross

    Jason Ross 2,540

    Posted

    Also, another incredibly cheap contract. Either the Cubs are just not spending anything at all this off-season or they're saving this money for something specific and expensive.

    Bertz

    Bertz 2,652

    Posted

    Screenshot_20251223_123047_Chrome.jpg

    Pretty obvious opportunity for positive regression

    Interesting that he walked a ton of guys in '23 and '24.  Because he throws plenty of strikes.  Definitely feels like there's some low hanging fruit in terms of 2 strike approach or sequencing or something like that.  Only question is if you can get more K's while keeping the soft contact or if it's an either/or thing.

    Also interesting to me that they're adding a guy whose best case scenario is Mark Leiter after already adding two traditional lefties.

    Bertz

    Bertz 2,652

    Posted

    Great stuff here.  tl;dr is more fastballs at the top of the zone and change out his sweeper for a more traditional slider

    • Love 1
    Jason Ross

    Jason Ross 2,540

    Posted

    18 minutes ago, Bertz said:

    Great stuff here.  tl;dr is more fastballs at the top of the zone and change out his sweeper for a more traditional slider

    Makes perfect sense too. The Cubs love fastballs up and did some good work with sliders last year. And they love some pronation. 



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