Caleb Williams is going to be fine and actually he’s going to be pretty damn good. So, stop, please stop freaking out, especially if you’re a Bears fan. You’ve seen truly awful QB play, Caleb Williams isn’t that. The Caleb that Chicago fans should be worried about is Caleb Kilian for the Cubs because the 27-year-old made his season debut Monday night and it went just as bad as his other MLB appearances.
We’ve seen this story before with Kilian, who in the past couple of offseasons has shown up to spring training, looked great down in Arizona, and then when he gets a chance against MLB hitters the righty gets crushed. With so many injuries to the pitching staff throughout the season, Kilian could have had a bigger sample size to impress this year, but he was victim to the injury bug himself.
The right-hander didn’t make it back to the mound until July, missing the first half of the season because of a shoulder strain. He put up good numbers at Triple-A, posting a 3.22 ERA in 44.2 innings with 38 strikeouts across 13 appearances with the Iowa Cubs. He had a tough assignment in his first outing with the Cubs this year, facing the Philadelphia Phillies and well, not good.
Kilian allowed five earned runs, (six total) on eight hits, which included a pair of home runs by the Phillies. The Cubs righty also walked four batters and was only able to strike out three in 5.2 innings, Kilian’s longest appearance in the majors.
It’s still an extremely small sample size, 22.1 innings, but man has it been really bad nearly every time Kilian gets an opportunity in the big leagues. While his stuff looks electric facing hitters at Triple-A, and he lights up the radar gun, throwing in the upper 90s with his fastball, Kilian isn’t fooling anyone at the big-league level.
In seven MLB games, hitters are slashing .348/.474/.511, against Kilian. He has an 11.28 ERA, with more walks, 18, than strikeouts, 17.
Can Kilian become a traditional one-inning reliever? Sure. However, his future as being a trusted depth starter who can come up in case of injury to make a few starts just cannot be something the Cubs feel comfortable about at this point.
But hey, maybe there’s a simple fix for Kilian. Could it be as easy as him tipping pitches? Bleacher Nation’s Brett Taylor was all over it during Kilian’s outing Monday night.
Kilian will have one more minor league option in 2025, which could be make it or break it time for the pitcher in the Cubs organization.
