NEWSLETTER
Well, you can’t say the Cubs didn’t stick to their promise of signing many more players before the start of the regular season. In the last day and a half, alone, they’ve added a couple of everyday position players in Seiya Suzuki and Jonathan Villar, they brought back swing man Adrian Sampson, and they added Daniel Norris, David Robertson, and Steven Brault to their pitching staff.
And according to Jesse Rogers, one more arm is on the way: former Mets righty Robert Gsellman.
Cubs stuff: As others have reported, SS Jonathan Villar has agreed to a one yr deal for 6 M…Daniel Norris will make 1.75 m with 2 mil in incentives after agreeing yesterday…And they've agreed on a deal with former Met righty P Robert Gsellman, per a source.
— Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) March 17, 2022
Gsellman, 28, was a 13th round pick for the Mets back in 2011, and was a top-10 Mets prospect as recently as 2017. He began his big league career as a starter, but has settled in as more of multi-inning reliever over the past few seasons (with an occasional swing start here or there).
Setting aside Gsellman’s expected performance for a moment, I want to remind you that this type of reliever (a multi-inning guy) is going to be more valuable in the NL this season because of the universal DH. No longer will David Ross have to worry about wasting an at-bat on a reliever he’d like in there for more than just a few outs.
And as we’ve said many times before, I just tend to trust the Cubs pitching infrastructure to get the most out of guys like this.
Gsellman is the type of guy that, with a normal organization, you might wonder if there was K's to be added by lowering the Sinker% in the pitch mix.
But the Cubs like sinkers more than every organization, so instead of fewer sinkers, I think you'd just project higher sinkers. pic.twitter.com/l70pzggeA5
— Cubs Prospects – Bryan Smith (@cubprospects) March 17, 2022
The Cubs now have a LOT of project arms to play with, and I’m excited to see which of the bunch emerge onto the active roster by the time the regular season rolls around.
