This former Chicago Cubs pitcher has a new baseball home

The Chicago Cubs made a lot of bad decisions after winning the World Series in 2016. One of them was giving Tyler Chatwood a ridiculous contract that he had absolutely no chance of living up to. He had a cup of coffee with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in 2011 before five solid years with the Colorado Rockies from 2012-2017 (he didn’t pitch in 2013).

After that 2017 season in Denver, he was signed to that aforementioned contract with the Cubs. There, he was never able to be that number four or even five starter that they so desperately needed. In fact, he was borderline awful for them from 2018-2020.

Over those three years, he had a record of 11-11 which is so bad for a team making bad decisions after bad decisions but it wasn’t what they needed from him. He also had an ERA of 4.70 and a WHIP of 1.608. He threw 184 strikeouts (141 walks) in 199.0 innings pitched.

Honestly, to say it was a disaster for him would be an understatement. He had some flashes of amazing play a fair amount but it was never consistent enough to be highly regarded as a pitcher. His command never really matched the stuff on a regular basis and it cost him.

Former Chicago Cubs pitcher Tyler Chatwood has a new baseball home.

Nobody could ever talk bad about Chatwood, however. He didn’t sign himself to a lucrative contract and he didn’t build the mostly flawed roster around him trying to scrounge anything from the 2016 season. All he did was show up to work every time he was needed with max effort and a smile on his face. It didn’t work out well production-wise which stings but the expectations were unrealistic.

After the 2020 season ended, he became a free agent. In January of 2021, he was signed by the Toronto Blue Jays. He played about half of his season there with them until he was released at the end of July. He then signed on with the San Francisco Giants who was one of the best teams in Major League Baseball. They had a really good run.

Right when that season ended, just like the year prior, he was granted free agency. Although this time he won’t be returning to Major League Bsseball. He is headed to Japan to play there with the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks of the NPB.

As mentioned before, he has shown good stuff in the past so you have to wonder what made him make this decision so early. It very well could be the lockout. Borderline MLB players might rather have the financial security if they aren’t already signed onto a club.

Chatwood took the money in Japan and is going to try and reinvent himself. If that works, he just might make his way back to Major League Baseball but you never know. Either way, it is good to see him have a new baseball home and he deserves some success over there.