A mess of Jed's making
The bullpen sucks again, but at least Cade Horton's really good
When Jed Hoyer gets fired from his cushy job as Cubs President of Baseball Nonsense, it's not going to be for spending too much of the trust fund Ricketts kids money on payroll (heaven forbid), it's not going to be for trading for Kyle Tucker even if they have no real desire to keep him, and it's not even going to be for botching all but one of the trades of the World Series core.
He's going to get fired because after the rebuild, when the Cubs were ready to make playoff runs he fucked up the bullpen every single time.
The shaky bullpen in 2023 led to David Ross pitching his only three good relievers (at the time) Michael Fulmer, Jerry Merryweather and Adbert Alzolay every day in August and September. All three got hurt and missed huge chunks (if not all of) 2024. Last year's bullpen couldn't make up for the losses of those three, especially when the big addition was a completely washed former Astros closer (Hector Neris.) And this year's is leaking oil already in early May largely because the big addition was another completely washed former Astros closer (Ryan Pressly.)
At least Pressly's career is imploding in style. On Tuesday night he became the first player in big league history to be charged with allowing nine runs while facing only eight batters!
The Cubs do not have the worst bullpen ERA in the league.
It's fourth worst at 4.75, better than only Arizona (5.02), Miami (5.05) and Washington (7.13--holy shit.)
They've given up more runs than the D'bags, just in more innings. They are also second in the league in bullpen HRs allowed.
The Cubs have a lot going for them. They score a lot of runs, they play (mostly) really good defense, they run the bases well, they usually get good starting pitching and their hotshot rookie pitcher looked very impressive in his big league debut Saturday night.
They are in first place in their division and have weathered the league's toughest record through 41 games and starting today through the remainder of the season literally play the easiest (based on opponent's winning percentage) schedule in either league.
But for the third year in a row, a crap bullpen threatens to undo all of it. Jed's had three years to fix it and he hasn't done shit.
