SEATTLE – Jacob Webb has learned something about this sport.
“In baseball,” the Cubs’ closer said Saturday, “you’ve got to expect the unexpected sometimes.”
Indeed, his season counts as unexpected.
The Cubs signed the righty reliever – successful, with a 3.22 ERA with three teams over the previous three years – to a one-year free-agent deal worth $1.5 million last offseason, bringing him in to be a piece of their bullpen puzzle.
But not the piece.
That’s what he’s been, though, the team’s go-to reliever, bringing a 24-appearance scoreless streak into Saturday’s game.
“The Cubs organization is a great organization. They’ve done nothing but given me opportunities,” Webb said. “It’s been fun going into some more pressure and some more challenges throughout a baseball year. I can’t thank them enough.
“It’s pretty cool closing for the Cubs right now.”
Webb is the headliner, but the Cubs’ bullpen has been an entire group of somewhat unexpected success stories, at least in the roles they’ve assumed.
Several of the higher-profile additions from last offseason haven’t yielded what Jed Hoyer hoped as his front office looked to almost entirely rebuild the relief corps.
Righty Phil Maton has been dogged by a knee injury and hit hard when on the mound. Righty Hunter Harvey has thrown just four innings, sidelined since mid April with a triceps injury. Lefty Hoby Milner has been out nearly two months while recovering from a late-June appendectomy.
The most notable holdover from 2025, righty closer Daniel Palencia, just returned from his own two-month absence while battling elbow inflammation, still under the 20-inning mark on the season.
But Webb (2.21 ERA), lefty Ryan Rolison (2.86) and righty Trent Thornton (2.52) have shone while shouldering unexpectedly heavy loads, helping the Cubs to one of the top 10 bullpens in the game, the unit bringing a 3.83 ERA into Saturday.
“It’s definitely been interesting,” lefty reliever Caleb Thielbar said Friday. “It’s been fun to watch some younger guys grow a little bit this year. … You just never know when your time’s going to be up. Those kinds of moments mean a lot throughout the course of a season.”
“This bullpen’s just a testament to a grinder mentality and having fun out there,” Webb said, “not putting too much pressure on ourselves, just going out and pitching.”
The lights are about to get even brighter on these guys as the Cubs head toward the postseason, an entirely different pitching puzzle, with starters often yanked early in games and the highest-leverage situations coming at any moment, no matter the inning.
Are these Cubs relievers ready for the big time?
“Guys are feeling good, feeling good about themselves, and that’s really what you need to do going into the postseason is just feel good about what you’re doing,” Thielbar said. “It’s obviously a different animal once you get to the postseason, but going in with confidence and having an idea of what you’re doing, it goes a long way in pitching those big innings at that point in time at the end of the year.”
Though the Cubs have ridden this relief group to big things so far this season, waking up Saturday with the fifth best record in the sport, things could look a lot different in the Wrigley Field bullpen dungeon come October.
Several guys who have worked as starters this season – righties Edward Cabrera, Ben Brown, Javier Assad, Colin Rea and lefty David Peterson – could all find themselves options for Craig Counsell & Co. out of the bullpen.
But the guys who have had everything thrown at them already this season are ready for the next curveball.
“I take a lot of pride in coming out and trying to shut down whatever inning it may be,” Webb said. “It doesn’t matter if I’m in the ninth or seventh or fifth or fourth, it doesn’t matter.
“That’s ultimately all we care about is winning here. That’s the goal is to get to the postseason, and you never know what can happen in the postseason.”
It’s true. As Webb well knows, the only thing you can expect is the unexpected.