4 Cubs Leaving Chicago in the New Year

4. Caleb Thielbar

The Cubs continued to bolster their bullpen, adding a southpaw into the mix with Thielbar. According to Jordan Bastian of MLB.com, Chicago signed Thielbar to a one-year major league contract on Tuesday. 

The 37-year-old reliever is coming off a rough 2024 season with the Minnesota Twins. He had a 2-4 record and 5.32 ERA in 59 games. He also allowed 28 earned runs (career-high), 24 walks (career-high), but struck out 53 in 47.1 innings pitched.

Thielbar’s 2024 season was a massive disappointment after having a 3.21 ERA in his previous four seasons in the Twin Cities. Cubs manager Craig Counsell hopes Thielbar can get back on track as he got hit around by right-handed hitters (.286 average), which was shockingly higher than his career numbers (.240 batting average).

However, despite his struggles against right-handed hitters, the veteran reliever found success against lefties (.244).

The Cubs were busy adding to the bullpen in the offseason, such as acquiring Eli Morgan from the Cleveland Guardians and Cody Poteet from the New York Yankees.

Morgan is coming off a fantastic 2024 season with the Guardians, where he had a 3-0 record and 1.93 ERA in 32 games. The right-handed pitcher only gave up nine earned runs, four home runs, and racked up 34 strikeouts in 42 innings. 

Also, the 28-year-old Morgan was great against right-handed hitters last season, holding them to a .167 batting average.

As for Poteet, he had a 2.22 ERA in five games (four starts) for the Yankees last season. The 30-year-old pitcher has experience as a reliever and starter, which could be a good fallback option for the Cubs if someone in the rotation got hurt.

Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see who amongst this group and the players returning from last year’s team will emerge as the go-to guys late in games for Counsell.

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