Chicago Cubs: Carl Edwards Jr. Becoming an Elite Weapon in the Bullpen

Chicago Cubs reliever Carl Edwards Jr. is going to be a huge impact piece of the bullpen.

The Chicago Cubs were able to come away with an impressive come from behind 6-4 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday afternoon. Kyle Schwarber had a big three-run home run that made him the hero and starting pitcher John Lackey had a strong outing as well. However, the unsung hero in the big win was Cubs relief pitcher Carl Edwards Jr.

Pedro Strop got into a bit of trouble in the eighth inning, allowing two runners on with only one out. The Cubs led the game 6-4 but it was clearly a make or break moment. Instead of letting Strop get out the situation, Joe Maddon went to his big guns, bringing in Carl Edwards Jr. for the big moment.

Coming in calm, cool and collected, Edwards immediately struck out Randal Grichuk and Jedd Gyorko to end the inning. The curveball that he got Gyorko on for strike three was absolutely nasty.

Edwards showcases a mid-90s fastball that gets on a hitter quickly and has a lot of natural downward movement. His fastball can be nearly impossible to hit when he has it going. Plus, as you can see above, Edwards has an absolutely dirty curveball. His two-pitch mix makes him an incredible weapon out of the bullpen for Joe Maddon.

Edwards is a strikeout machine who can dominate opposing hitters. He is extremely valuable to this team as a guy who Maddon can bring into the game in tough situations when he needs a strikeout. As we saw today, Edwards is up for the challenge.

The Cubs slender right-hander came up and showed some promise with the team last season. His 3.75 ERA in 36 innings is not perfect, but his 2.40 xFIP (according to FanGraphs) suggests that he ran into a bit of bad luck.

A deeper dive into Edwards’ numbers shows how valuable of a bullpen arm he can be. His 37.7% strikeout rate is absolutely ridiculous. According to the FanGraphs glossary, anything over 27% is considered elite. The sample size is small, but I think it is fair to consider Edwards an elite strikeout pitcher at this point in his career.

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He does struggle with control at times, but Edwards has ridiculous raw “stuff” that undoubtedly plays at the major league level. The Chicago Cubs have a strong overall bullpen, but Edwards coming out as the fireman when they are in trouble is their biggest weapon.