The return address on the package sitting on Ryan Rolison’s chair in the Cubs’ clubhouse? San Francisco 49ers.
Inside were two NFL footballs, and a note from the 49ers equipment manager, Jeff Gilbert.
When the Cubs were in San Francisco three weeks ago, Gilbert was in the stands while a couple of Cubs pitchers, including Rolison, were throwing around a football. Gilbert was wearing a sweatshirt from Ole Miss, where Rolison played his college baseball.
“He was, like, calling my name,” the left-handed reliever said.
Rolison walked over to the railing. Gilbert introduced himself, and, in exchange for an auto-graphed baseball, sent Rolison the footballs.
Pays to be nice?
“Pays to be a Cub,” Rolison said.
Rolison’s father, Gary, was a walk-on quarterback at the University of Memphis.
“I love football,” said Rolison, who played it as a high school freshman, then gave it up for baseball. “I grew up around the game. My dad kind of taught me how to throw a football.”
Rolison and other Cubs pitchers throw a football around during pregame work.
“I just love going out and throwing it,” Roli-son said. “I think it’s a good warmup for the shoulder, and just good for moving around and being athletic.”
It was in the middle of football season last fall, Nov. 18, when Rolison learned he no longer had a big-league job with the Rockies, the team that drafted him in the first round in 2018. The Rockies had watched as Rolison endured a series of physical calamities — an appendectomy, a fractured finger when struck by a line drive in the outfield during batting practice and two shoulder surgeries that required 2½ years of rehab.
He didn’t make it to the big leagues until 2025, when he was 27, seven long years after he’d been drafted. He pitched mostly in a mop-up role. After the season, the Rockies took him off their 40-man roster, which set off a domino series of moves in which he became the property of the Braves, the White Sox and finally the Cubs, who claimed him off waivers the day he and his fiancee, Lauren, were flying to Chicago to be married. That all happened in the span of 50 days.
Rolison began this season in the minors, then was called up April 14 when reliever Ethan Roberts fractured his finger in a freak accident. At the time of his promotion, Rolison had one major-league win to his name and no reason to believe his stay in Chicago would be a long one. When big-league teams are shuttling their relievers back and forth from the minors like rush-hour commuters, job security can evaporate with a couple of bad outings.
But after nearly three months with the Cubs, Rolison has won the trust of manager Craig Counsell, who hasn’t hesitated to call upon him in high-leverage situations.
Maybe equally important, he has pitched as well as he thought he would, if only given the chance.
“I think that’s anyone at this level,” Rolison said. “I feel like last year, I viewed the big leagues as almost like I had to prove to myself that I was good enough. And now I have the confidence because I’ve seen myself do it in big situations and against good lineups . . . and now it’s like I expect myself to go out there and have success and be dominant.”
Rolison has a 5-1 record this season, the most wins of any Cubs reliever. Last week against the Padres, he earned his first big-league save.
He has thrown the third-most innings out of the Cubs’ bullpen, behind only Jacob Webb and Hoby Milner, who last week went on the injured list after an attack of appendicitis. He has 33 strikeouts in 33„ innings, and opponents’ on-base-plus-slugging percentage against him is just .644. Only Ben Brown (.497) has a lower opponents’ OPS.
Until Sunday against the Cardinals, when he was charged with two runs after giving up two singles ahead of Jordan Walker’s three-run home run off Tyler Ferguson, Rolison had allowed just one earned run in 17 appearances dating back to May 20, an 0.44 ERA (one earned run in 20 inning pitched).
“I’m just throwing the ball with a ton of confidence,” he said, “and it’s been a lot of fun.”
