Ryan Pressly Had Knee Drained Tuesday, May Be Available Friday
Ryan Pressly has saved four games for the Cubs, but he didn’t appear in either of the Cubs’ one-run wins over the Dodgers at Wrigley despite the team having Monday off. Manager Craig Counsell told reporters after the game that Porter Hodge got the save opportunity because Pressly had his right knee drained, adding that the closer is day-to-day and could be ready for the start of the weekend series against the Phillies.
Assuming this wasn’t an acute issue, a balky knee would help to explain Pressly’s shaky performance through 11 appearances. His 2.45 ERA and no blown saves mask the fact that he’s only struck out five batters with six walks over 11 innings. Even accounting for age-based diminution, this is a guy who came to Chicago with 693 strikeouts in 650 career innings. He was at 10+ K/9 for six straight seasons before dipping to 9.21 last season after the Astros demoted him to setup man.
That falloff coincides with a shift in slider usage, from around 40% over four seasons as Houston’s closer to 29% or less in his non-closing seasons. It’s at 28.3% with the Cubs and has been his best pitch by a fairly wide margin over his 3K banger of a curve, yet his cutty four-seam still leads the way. That fastball is thrown nearly one-third of the time, but it’s down to 93.3 mph and just isn’t very effective.
The changeup has likewise been less than great and might be better off in mothballs so Pressly can allocate its usage to his breaking stuff. I find it very interesting that he’s actually broadened his repertoire over time, going from just three pitches — slider, four-seam, curve — from 2019-21 to four in ’22 (curve) before incorporating a cutter in ’23 and swapping that for a sinker last year. He’s still at five now, but might be better off leaning into the main three in a bigger way.
More important is just getting healthy enough to properly execute whatever pitches he’s throwing. Whether you believe Pressly can capably serve as the closer or not, the Cubs are better when he’s available in the bullpen.
