Through the first couple months of the 2023 season, the bullpen was the Achilles heel for the Chicago Cubs, who entered June with a record of 24-31, last place in the NL Central Division. Thanks to several pitchers stepping up, the Cubs have the fifth-best bullpen ERA since June 1, at 3.47.
However, since the second-half, David Ross has needed to rely on his high-leverage relievers a little more than he would like and we’ve seen how a depleted group has led to many close games because the rest of the relievers haven’t been able to hold on to large leads. The latest example of that was Saturday night, when Hayden Wesneski pitched an abysmal eighth inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates, allowing five earned runs that made an 8-1 lead shrink to 8-6.
Luckily for the Cubs, the bullpen might have just gotten its savior with the return of Keegan Thompson.
The right-handed pitcher quickly became a fan-favorite at Wrigley Field by coming up and delivering in high-leverage situations out of the Cubs bullpen. Thompson, who was used in the starting rotation and as a reliever, established himself as a great multi-inning reliever and from 2021-22, he posted a 1.95 ERA in 73.2 innings out of the bullpen. That included a superb 1.47 ERA in his 12 relief appearances during the 2022 season that covered 36.2 innings.
That’s why it was so devastating to see Thompson struggle during the spring, which eventually led to a demotion down to Triple-A in May. It’s been a long road back, as Thompson continued to struggle with the Iowa Cubs and he also missed time on the injured list, but the right-hander showed us on Sunday why he was a trusted reliever to begin the 2023 season.
It was as low-leverage of a situation as you could get, but Thompson hasn’t looked this great in a long time. He pitched two scoreless innings against the Pirates, gave up a hit, but struck out five batters in a lopsided Cubs win.
Imagine if Thompson does end up pitching like the 2022 version of himself. Last year, all 12 of his relief outings were at least 2 innings and only in one occasion did Thompson give up more than one earned run, it was two runs in 2.2 innings at the end of the season against the Cincinnati Reds.
Back in May, if Michael Fulmer was placed on the injured list, Cubs fans would have a mini-parade because of the veteran’s atrocious start in the Cubs bullpen. However, he’s been incredible for the past few months and his absence the next few weeks shouldn’t be overlooked.
Having the ability to come in twice a week and just shut down the opposing offense for a couple innings at a time would be such a huge boost for the Cubs in September after seeing guys like Fulmer, Mark Leiter Jr., Julian Merryweather and Adbert Alzolay doing a lot of the heavy lifting since July.
During Friday’s double header, Ross may have already shown that Thompson is back in his circle of trust. In game one against the Reds, Ross went to Thompson in the eighth inning, when the Cubs were up 4-1. Yes, a decent lead, but with Thompson’s walk issues this year that three-run advantage wasn’t relatively big in that ballpark.
Thompson pitched two innings and did allow one run, but that came after the Cubs scored two more runs in the top of the ninth inning. This was Thompson’s first save of the season.
