Cubs Bullpen Notes: Brown’s ‘Relief’ Appearance, Pomeranz Among Surprise Dominating Performances

There was a lot of concern, understandably so, over Ben Brown‘s role moving forward following a pair of outings in which he gave up 14 earned runs combined to the Marlins and Reds. Rather than sending him to Iowa or sticking him in the bullpen for shorter stints, neither of which would have addressed the issue, the Cubs opted to use an opener to ease the big righty into his bulk outing on Saturday. The result was a season-best performance that saw Brown limit the Reds to one hit over six scoreless frames.

His nine strikeouts were almost academic, though they apparently tied him with Glendon Rusch for most Ks by a Cubs “reliever” since 2006. The label is a function of how Craig Counsell opted to deploy Brown, but the performance was about the pitcher’s mentality. You could almost see his gears turning in previous appearances as he tried to be too fine early on.

As someone I know better than anyone else on the planet recently suggested, using an opener might allow Brown to dispense with the cutesy pitching and just get after it right from the start. Being tentative is what’s kept him from maintaining his ace-level stuff, whether it’s not trusting the changeup or trying to aim the curve a little too much.

“It was almost like I was waiting for something good to happen in the first inning rather than me being on the attack and being the one that did execute those pitches,” Brown told reporters after Saturday’s outing. “That was a theme of all my starts last year — there was always something I [could] tell you every start [about] what was the thing that got me online.”

I’m all in favor of keeping this strategy in place, even if Brown continues to shove and looks like he could go back to a more traditional role. When it’s all said and done, all that matters is that you get the requisite number of outs each game.

Getting those outs hasn’t always been a given for Cubs relievers, especially early in the season, but the organization has found a way to cobble together a strong unit despite injuries and early struggles. Ryan Pressly was demoted from his role due to very poor results that still include walking more batters (11) than he’s struck out (10), hence his continued use in low-leverage spots. Porter Hodge took over and quickly fell prey to the oblique strain monster stalking the club, which led to Daniel Palencia taking over.

You might be surprised to know that Palencia now leads the team with five saves, one more than Pressly and three more than Hodge. I was almost shocked that Hodge only had two, but part of that comes from assuming the role at a time when the offense was routinely pummeling opponents. Who gets the ball in the 9th is only a small part of the story, though.

While WAR isn’t really a great way to measure pitching performance, it’s very interesting that none of the Cubs’ top six relievers in that metric were expected to be there. We can throw Brown out because he doesn’t really count, but it’s interesting that his 0.4 fWAR comes from two relief appearances. Brad Keller leads the way with 0.6 fWAR, then it’s Caleb Thielbar and Palencia with 0.4, Drew Pomeranz with 0.3, and Chris Flexen with 0.2 so far.

Those latter pitchers stand out in particular because of the “Here goes Jed Hoyer with his reclamation projects again” feel to their acquisitions. But we’re looking at a group of experienced veterans who are comfortable in their own skin and have all been able to set ego aside in search of ways to improve.

Keller embraced his role as a reliever and is averaging over 97 mph with the fastball after never being above 94.5 as a starter. Flexen lowered his arm slot and has tweaked his repertoire a bit to yield better performance than South Side fans saw last season. Pomeranz hadn’t pitched in the majors since 2021, yet the Cubs saw enough in him to pick him up from the Mariners in a deal almost no one believed would amount to much.

You don’t typically see any pitcher throw their fastball 81% of the time, particularly when it’s only 93 mph and they get very little extension, but the lefty has dominated with it so far. His 7 runs of fastball value are near the top of MLB among all pitchers, and we’re talking about just 13.2 innings over 15 games. Whether this lasts for Pomeranz and his colleagues remains to be seen, but it’s nice to be able to trust the bullpen.

Their combined 2.44 ERA since April 19 leads MLB, quite a change from the 5.83 they had posted prior to that point.

Being able to mix and match as needed is a huge help to Counsell, but there’s still a lot of season left to play and the Cubs will need to keep finding guys to eat innings. That’s where staying active with scouting and acquisitions will help, as was the case with lefty Génesis Cabrera. Though the Cubs do have plenty of options at Iowa as well, some of those pitchers have struggled in Chicago, some of which may be due to them falling prey to the same issues Brown discussed.

This is where having a guy like Tyler Zombro in the front office is such a big help. He’s certainly not in it alone, and I don’t want to ascribe too much credit to one person, but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we’re seeing several reclamation projects pitching well above expectations.