CHICAGO — Perhaps it’s too early to suggest the Cubs are in full-blown crisis mode with their bullpen. But after Friday’s 10-8 loss to the Cincinnati Reds, the Cubs are 2-5 in their last seven, with the bullpen featuring prominently in many of those losses.
David Peterson had worked a strong five innings for the Cubs Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field, exiting with Chicago up 3-2. Almost immediately upon his departure, things fell apart. Trent Thornton allowed a game-tying home run and then quickly saw things unravel after an RBI single and a three-run home run flipped what had been a 3-0 lead into a 7-3 deficit.
“He made some bad pitches and they hit him,” manager Craig Counsell said. “Trent’s been really, really good for a good stretch, but he made some bad pitches today.”
Thornton has done a great job for the Cubs this season after being added in the spring as a minor-league free agent. Even after Friday’s awful outings, the veteran has a 3.32 ERA in 43 1/3 innings and has helped fill a critical role as injuries piled up early in the year.
But his strikeout rate has been a concern. Despite some recent positive trends in that area (in 10 scoreless August innings before Friday, Thornton struck out 26.3 percent of the batters he faced), he has a 14.5 percent strikeout rate on the season. Of relievers with at least 40 innings pitched, only four have a worse strikeout rate. Two (Miles Mikolas and Zack Littell) have been designated for assignment. The other two (Tim Hill and Tyler Rogers) are elite ground-ball pitchers.
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Thornton deserves credit for what he’s given the team this season, but relying on him in the bridge innings of a one-run game may not be the best solution. But other than perhaps going with Colin Rea — who hasn’t pitched since last Friday — for multiple innings, there may not have been a better option. Not right now, at least.
With the trade deadline passed, the club is largely focused on pitchers already in their organization.
What are the Cubs’ options?
• The first step will be getting the current bullpen arms right. Jacob Webb has been brilliant all season long, but he’s blown consecutive save opportunities. With a month left in the season, Webb is one appearance and 7 1/3 innings short of matching career highs in both categories.
Counsell said there were “no plans to give him a break” when asked if he needed to stop leaning on him so heavily.
“We’re gonna need Jacob to be good to accomplish our goals,” Counsell said. “You’re always monitoring workload. It’s a daily thing of monitoring these guys and what they’re doing. I think Jacob’s in a good spot.”
The data doesn’t suggest he’s off, but others stepping up would certainly help give him some much-needed off days.
• Two guys who could do that are Daniel Palencia and Ryan Zeferjahns. There isn’t a tremendous amount of concern with Palencia at the moment. He gave up a solo homer on Friday, but struck out two and looks close to his top form. He’s shaking off the rust (Friday was just his third appearance after a two-month stint on the injured list), and there is confidence he’ll soon be the imposing reliever they saw last season.
Zeferjahn is a different story. The pitching coaches worked with him in the bullpen before Friday’s loss. Though seven of the 11 hits he’s allowed since joining the Cubs have come on his four-seam fastball, the Cubs aren’t particularly worried about that pitch.
Their focus with Zeferjahn is two-fold. The first is getting his gyro slider and sweeper to be a bit crisper. He’s slightly off with his mechanics and he’s not getting to the front of the ball in quite the same way as he does when at his best.
The next step is correcting Zeferjahn’s pitch usage. They’ve seen him be too much of a two-pitch pitcher, leaning on his four-seamer and sweeper. Those are the pitches he will use most, but they want to see at least 30 percent usage between his sinker and gyro slider. After that, it’s about correcting sequencing.
• Friday didn’t offer any more clarity on Ben Brown’s status. Brown felt “symptoms” after throwing two innings during Tuesday’s controlled scrimmage at the organization’s Arizona complex, putting his availability the rest of this season into question.
“Obviously the fact that we’re gathering opinions from doctors means there’s a setback,” manager Craig Counsell said. “But no path forward from that has been determined at all.”
According to a team source who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the club’s plans, the Cubs are looking at their major-league roster with the assumption that Brown won’t be able to help. That’s a departure from how they looked at things before Tuesday. Their focus with him is on his future and making sure his neck injury won’t be a recurring problem.
• Brown not being an option stings. But other talented pitchers could impact the bullpen with more swing-and-miss. After throwing a bullpen on Tuesday, Edward Cabrera had a live BP session in Arizona on Friday. The next step would be a rehab outing. After it was determined that his blister issues tend to be exacerbated after longer outings, the Cubs believe they can use him as a reliever the rest of this season.
“We’re gonna do some shorter stints with him,” Counsell said.
The question there becomes how quickly he bounces back after each appearance. The Cubs have a plethora of long relievers between Rea, Aaron Civale and Javier Assad (currently working as a starter at Triple A). They need another bat-missing option who can work multiple times a week. Can Cabrera be that guy?
• Shelby Miller isn’t too far away from helping the team. After pitching three times last week and feeling good, his next hurdle is pitching back-to-back games. He’s expected to try and clear that by pitching for Triple-A Iowa on Friday and Saturday. The Cubs would then like to see Miller work more than one inning. That would be one of the final steps before the Cubs consider him a legitimate option for the big-league bullpen. The next 10 or so days will be critical.
• Lefty Justin Steele isn’t on the verge of returning, but he continues to check off boxes. If he returns to the big leagues this season, the question will be how often he can be used. If he’s sharp, the Cubs know how good he can be as a reliever since they saw him dominate in the role in 2021 before he converted to starting full-time.
