3 Surprise Cubs Who Will Make the 40-Man Roster

2. Richard Lovelady, LHP

The Chicago Cubs have become somewhat experts of the relief pitcher reclamation project in recent years, which has been a very welcomed sight to see.

The Cubs just seem to understand how to strike while the iron's hot when it comes to some of these relief pitchers, and this is a guy who had some good success with the Kansas City Royals back in the 2021 season. Tommy John surgery cost him the 2022 campaign and he dealt with a season-ending forearm injury in 2023 with the Oakland A's, but the talent is there for Lovelady to be a late-inning reliever for the Cubs in 2024 if he can maintain his availability health-wise.

And because the Cubs have gotten good at finding reclamation projects, they've taken more shots in that department, which can be extremely valuable over the course of the long season in a variety of ways. If you have an overabundance of depth, you can parlay it for great value at the trade deadline. As we saw with the Cubs last year, their depth in the bullpen allowed them to go on a heater from June-August.

Players like Mark Leiter Jr. and Julian Merryweather undoubtedly make you more confident that a player like Richard Lovelady can work out in Chicago, and frankly, it's likely a big reason why Lovelady signed in Chicago to begin with. He's got a great variance in his pitches and velocity, and could be one of the top gems of Spring Training for the Cubs.