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After going 11-15 in April, the Cubs have won 13 of 20 games in May. There are a few reasons why they’re winning so much more this month, and one of the main ones has been the shutdown bullpen.
Last week, the Cubs relievers collectively threw 25.2 innings and did not allow a run, and they had three times as many strikeouts as hits allowed. Not coincidentally, the Cubs went 6-2 in that stretch.
On the season, they trail only the Padres bullpen in total strikeouts — 228 to their 233 — but they have the highest strikeout rate in baseball. Their 3.02 ERA as a group is the fourth-lowest in the league.
And they’ve been pretty consistent; the bullpen had only slightly lower strikeout rates and a somewhat higher ERA in April. They’ve been steadily good while the rest of the team has stepped up its game to match the relievers.
A lot of what has made this group so good this year, and especially of late, has been some of the new faces. Namely, guys like Justin Steele, Keegan Thompson, and lately, Tommy Nance. The 30-year-old reliever made his debut a week ago, and Cubs manager David Ross has not shied away from using Nance in high leverage spots. It’s paid off; Nance has a 0.88 WHIP in four appearances and has yet to allow a run.
Before hitting the 10-day injured list on May 21 with a hamstring strain, Steele had a 2.03 ERA in 11 appearances and had a 3-to-1 strikeout to walk ratio. Thompson has pitched eight times and hasn’t given up an earned run.
Otherwise, closer Craig Kimbrel has continued the turnaround that began last September. He is leading the bullpen with a 43.2% strikeout rate and has a 0.95 ERA. It’s possible that Kimbrel maintaining his good performance might push him onto the trading block as the July trade deadline gets nearer, but it’s also possible that the Cubs’ overall turnaround in May has general manager Jed Hoyer reconsidering his approach.
The Cubs have clawed their way to two games above .500, and with the series win in St. Louis over the weekend, they are just two games behind the Cardinals for the division lead.
And as capacity limits increase — Chicago is set to allow both the White Sox and Cubs to go to 60% this week from 25% — the front office could be in a better position to address the lingering question of future contracts. Where last winter Hoyer felt the need to shed salary by trading Cy Young runner-up Yu Darvish and letting Jon Lester and Kyle Schwarber leave in free agency, the financial picture stands to improve this summer.
If the Cubs hope to hold on to any of the core group of players who have been so important for their successes of the last six years, they might have to convince them that they’re still taking winning seriously.
Catcher Willson Contreras, who has one more year under team control before he could hit free agency, told NBC Chicago’s Gordon Wittenmeyer that the team’s moves are on his radar:
“I would love to get to the playoffs a few more times and get to the World Series at least two or three more times in my career,” Contreras said. “So that’s a deep evaluation that I’d have to do, that [we’d] have to talk about. That’s going to be a long conversation: ‘Who are we going to have on our team, who are we going to keep, who are we trading for, who are we signing?’”
When the season started, the Cubs looked like a team sure to be selling off at the trade deadline, but thanks to winning at a .650 clip so far in May, that might not end up being the case.
And the improved development of their pitching staff — both in the majors and in the minors — has started to come to fruition. The Cubs have usually been good at getting innings out of reclamation projects; Rex Brothers has a 3.00 ERA and has been a strikeout machine. But so far this season, some of the best-looking arms in the bullpen have been the new guys.
If that continues, the Cubs bullpen might help steer the course of the organization away from a rebuild.
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May 25, 2021 at 01:13AM
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Chicago Cubs Are Looking Hot In May, Thanks In Part To The Bullpen - Forbes
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