Daniel Palencia seizes the closer role after a dominant breakout season, armed with an elite fastball and lethal slider. He's ready to shut down opponents.
Wednesday marked the first day of pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training for the Chicago Cubs. Every Cubs pitcher and catcher had to report by this date to the team’s Spring Training facility.
The start of Spring Training also meant that we were going to hear from manager Craig Counsell for the first time since the Winter Meetings all the way back in December.
The two biggest things to come out of his media scrum were the fact that the Cubs aren’t dealing with any injuries right now and that Daniel Palencia will be the team’s closer to start the 2026 season.
It’s not a surprise that Palencia is going to be Chicago’s closer this season. The Cubs didn’t add a traditional closer in free agency, and the hard-throwing right-hander was really excellent in that ninth-inning role last season.
Palencia first took over the closer job in mid-May amid some struggles from Ryan Pressly. Although he blew his first save opportunity of the season against the Marlins, he then went on to save 15 straight games from May 21 to August 8. During this stretch, the 26-year-old had a 0.75 ERA and 26 strikeouts.
There’s no doubt that Palencia was the team’s biggest breakout relief pitcher last season. After spending the start of the 2025 campaign in Triple-A, the Venezuelan native looked like a new pitcher once he was called up in mid-April.
Palencia is exactly the type of pitcher teams want in that closer role. He throws hard, strikes out batters at an elite clip, and doesn’t really walk batters. His 99.6 mph average fastball velocity, 28.4% strikeout rate, and 7.4% walk rate all ranked in the upper half of the league last season.
While Palencia did go through some troubles later in the season, part of that could be correlated to a shoulder injury that landed him on the 15-day injured list in September.
But once his shoulder was fully healed, he went back to being that dominant reliever. The young right-hander allowed zero runs in five of his six postseason appearances while earning three wins and one hold across those playoff games.
When Palencia is at his best, he is extremely tough to hit. His fastball/slider combination is lethal, and hitters had a hard time against both pitches last year. Opposing hitters had an expected .233 batting average against his fastball and an expected .205 batting average against his slider.
After saving 22 games for the North Siders a season ago, Palencia is the best choice for that closer role.