Chicago Cubs: Things to watch for in spring training

After an offseason of training and tinkering, does Tyler Chatwood have more control of his pitches?

Heralded as one of last year’s best “change of scenery” free agent signings, the Cubs and their fans had high expectations for Tyler Chatwood since he’d finally be pitching outside of batter’s paradise Coors Field.

It didn’t take long for that excitement about the possibility of a huge improvement from Chatwood to wane. Chatwood walked six batters in his first start, and it never got any better.

Chatwood started 20 games for the Cubs and made four appearances out of the bullpen once he was mercifully removed from the team’s starting rotation.

His 5.30 ERA was bad, but Chatwood’s 8.25 BB/9 rate is what really stands out. Of all pitchers with at least 100 innings thrown in 2018, his BB/9 rate is the worst by a mile. Hector Santiago‘s 5.29 rate is the second worst – nearly 3 whole walks below Chatwood!

The 29-year-old righty talked about his struggles in 2018 with Mark Gonzalez of the Chicago Tribune:

"I was just trying way too hard. Normally you want to be free and easy. But when you know there’s something going on wrong and you’re trying to fix it, you’re mentally grinding more on that and putting more effort into stuff than I normally have."

With two years and $25.5 million still owed to Chatwood, the Cubs are hoping that an offseason of work will get him back to at least a usable level. In fact, Chatwood says he fixed a mechanical flaw in his delivery where he was jabbing his right hand towards third base as he was getting ready to deliver his pitch.

This spring, keep an eye on the following things when Chatwood takes the rubber:

• Is he regularly throwing the first pitch of an at-bat for a strike? His 50 percent first-pitch strike rate was dead last in the majors in 2018.
• When he gets in a jam, can he confidently work out of it or does he spiral out of control?

If Chatwood can re-establish himself as a consistent strike thrower, he should be a front-runner for one of the final bullpen spots. Plus, he’ll surely get a handful of starts over the course of the year.

His 2018 season is one that Cubs fans wish they could forget, but Chatwood still has time to prove that his contract won’t be an albatross for the next two years.