Déjà vu: Cubs Bullpen Starts Season Sucking Again

I get it, the Arizona Diamondbacks have a great offense, literally the No. 1 scoring team in baseball last year and they’re projected to be good again in 2025. However, this is fucking Déjà vu for the Cubs bullpen. Different names, same shitty results to start another season.

Ryan Pressly was bailed out Saturday night thanks to Dansby Swanson’s game-ending play in the ninth and that was after Preslly looked shaky in Thursday’s 10-6 win. The bullpen has allowed multiple runs in each of the first four games following the Tokyo.

The cherry on top of the crap sundae in the series finale against the Diamondbacks really did give fans PTSD from last year’s bullpen meltdowns from the first half. Kyle Tucker hit a three-run homer in the eighth inning that gave the Cubs a 6-2 lead. That was after Arizona had cut their deficit to one.

So, it looked great for the Cubs. A four-run cushion and six outs to get. Well, so much for that. Lefty Caleb Thielbar came out for his second inning of work after he had to come in to bail out Nate Pearson’s mess in the seventh and it was a disaster. Thielbar walked the first two batters he faced and then gave way for Eli Morgan.

The righty looked good in his first couple outings for the Cubs, but Sunday Morgan was on the mound for the first Cubs bullpen meltdown of 2025. After getting an out Morgan proceeded to give up four consecutive hits, including the game-tying and go-ahead hits by Arizona.

PIÑA POWER TO TIE IT 🍍 pic.twitter.com/P0PtkW1E1v
— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) March 30, 2025

Even gave up an RBI-single to the opposing relief pitcher.

To top it off, Colin Rea came in and he allowed another run to score. Eight fucking runs. EIGHT! Pathetic. It’s hard not to think about the failures of 2023 and 2024 out of the bullpen when this is what we see in four games in Arizona.

Fuck.

The Cubs went from feeling pretty good about winning three of four against a good ball club, to splitting the series because of the same fucking problem from last year. A shitty bullpen that somehow looks even worse at this point of the year than it did in 2024.