Among a number of notes today over at The Athletic, Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney collected a list of POSSIBLE reliever targets still remaining for the Chicago Cubs, while noting that the list is almost certainly NOT exhaustive.
Many are guys we’ve discussed here at length – several as recently as yesterday – so it’s not necessarily going to blow your mind, but since these two reporters are well-plugged-in, I figured you’d want to know who they are hearing about:
“That leaves the Cubs still casting a wide net in their search for bullpen help. The group under consideration this winter, according to league sources briefed on the teamโs discussions, has included Kenley Jansen, David Robertson, Ryan Pressly, Phil Maton, Ryne Stanek and Brooks Raley. For context, though, the list of relievers the Cubs have seriously evaluated easily reaches double digits.”
David Robertson and Kenley Jansen, well-known veterans with a long track record at the backs of bullpens, were discussed yesterday. What is at least as interesting is that the other top-ish three remaining relievers on the free agent market that Michael wrote about are not on Sharma and Mooney’s list: Carlos Estevez, Tommy Kahnle, and Kyle Finnegan. I have mixed feelings on that – I haven’t been quite as high on Estevez or Finnigan, but I do really like Kahnle for the Cubs – but again, the fact that they were not named does not necessarily mean they aren’t considerations.
Brooks Raley, a former Cub who is currently rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, popped up in a rumor earlier this month, and a trade for Astros reliever Ryan Pressly is something we’ve bounced around before, too.
Phil Maton was connected to the Cubs in past offseasons, including this time last year, together with Ryne Stanek.
Maton, 31, has had a good many successful years in the big leagues, but looked like he was at risk for falling off last year when he signed with the Rays. He wound up with the Mets at midseason, and really took back off, such that his end-of-year numbers (3.66 ERA over 64.0 IP, 4.26 FIP, 46.8% GB, 7.0% barrel) all look pretty much like the successful contact-manager type he’s been for a while. Maton is not a huge strikeout guy (usually in the 22% range) or a huge velo guy (89-91 mph range, and mostly a base-cutter guy). But he does pretty consistently get results by not walking too many, staying off the barrel, and keeping the ball on the ground. You’d be happy to have him in your bullpen, I think, but he doesn’t quite strike me as a true late-inning option for the Cubs.
Stanek, 33, by contrast, is more of a high-velo (98-99 mph), high-strikeout (27-28% range) type reliever. His results have been mixed the last two years, but he projects a little better into 2025 than Maton does because of the perceived difference in stuff. Like Maton, I’m not sure Stanek is a back-of-the-bullpen guy to the degree this Cubs team needs, but it’s not as if I’d be unhappy to see the Cubs add him in the abstract.