Chicago Cubs: Hector Rondon starting to find his groove on the mound
Chicago Cubs reliever Hector Rondon had a rough spring. He also struggled in the World Baseball Classic. He made some adjustments, and now he is one of the few bright spots in a struggling bullpen.
When Chicago Cubs reliever Hector Rondon started the 2017 season, some wondered what to expect from him. He spent the entire Spring Training struggling to find the plate and command of his pitches. He finished the exhibition season with a whopping 14.73 ERA.
Rondon even pitched in the World Baseball Classic to see if the higher competition could bring out his normally good stuff. That did not work either. In his appearances for Team Venezuela, he got five outs, but he also gave up five runs on seven hits and two walks in the process.
That didn’t give off much confidence going into the beginning of the regular season.
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The Cubs still felt confident in Rondon, though not confident enough to have him as the number one closer. Manager Joe Maddon wasn’t too concerned with Rondon’s ineffectiveness.
"F— it, it is what it is."
Rondon himself felt pretty confident. He thought he just needed to make some adjustments to his delivery. He’s still working on perfecting it but feels the regular season is a completely different animal from the spring.
"[In] the stretch … pull my hands down, that helps me a lot to get my angle to home plate. I still don’t feel right about my mechanics…Spring training is different. You pitch different. Everything works different. The hitter, they’re thinking how you’re going to pitch them. In spring, they’re just swinging."
The results are showing. So far in the young season, he, along with new closer Wade Davis, have been the bright spots on a struggling Cubs’ bullpen. That bullpen has more blown saves than saves (3 saves, 4 blown saves), and averages 4.59 walks per nine innings.
Rondon, on the other hand, is sparkling. He has a 1.42 ERA, with a 0.79 WHIP and 9 strikeouts in 6-and-1/3 innings. He looks like the Rondon from two seasons ago, when he recorded 30 saves and had a 1.67 ERA, a WHIP of 1.00 and 69 strikeouts in 70 innings.
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It’s still too early to make any proclamations but if Hector Rondon continues like this, the back-end of the bullpen of the Chicago Cubs should be one of the toughest in Major League Baseball.