With a decimated bullpen, the Cubs need a reliable, hard-throwing arm. Seranthony Dominguez, coming off a career year, offers proven dominance.
The Chicago Cubs will be in the market for plenty of bullpen help this winter.
With most of the bullpen from last season hitting free agency, the Cubs could have a completely different bullpen for next year. Key arms like Brad Keller, Drew Pomeranz, and Caleb Thielbar all could find new homes this offseason.
Those relievers would obviously be a big loss for a Cubs bullpen that ranked top 10 for most of the 2025 season. For that reason, the front office should move differently this offseason in terms of bullpen help.
Cubs fans know that the front office doesn’t like to spend top dollars on relief pitching. Only one reliever (Ryan Pressly) made over $5 million last year, and Chicago doesn’t usually give out multi-year contracts to the position in free agency.
However, that should change this offseason.
One reliever the Cubs should go out and get is hard-throwing right-hander Seranthony Dominguez. Dominguez has been a consistent bullpen arm for teams such as the Philadelphia Phillies, Baltimore Orioles, and Toronto Blue Jays throughout his career.
In 2025, Dominguez posted the best numbers of his career. He had a 3.16 ERA across 62 ⅔ innings pitched in the regular season and then continued that dominance into the postseason. The 30-year-old allowed four earned runs across 11 ⅓ innings (3.18 ERA) in 12 postseason appearances.
Dominguez’s metrics also back up his strong year on the mound. His .200 expected batting average, 87.5 mph average exit velocity, 33.3% whiff rate, 30.3% strikeout rate, and 97.7 mph fastball velocity placed him in the top 11% of the league. Even his expected ERA (3.23) and barrel rate (6.9%) ranked extremely well last year.
As a result, he would be the perfect target for the Cubs this offseason. The team could use some hard-throwing arms, alongside Daniel Palencia, and Dominguez has a five-pitch mix to keep hitters off balance.
The only problem with signing Dominguez, though, is that the Cubs would likely need to commit to him for multiple years. Both Spotrac and ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel believe that he will seek a multi-year contract in free agency.
Spotrac has his market value set around three years, $32 million, while McDaniel projects a two-year, $15 million contract for the hard-throwing right-hander. If the price winds up being the latter, the Cubs should really go after this high-leverage arm.
While the walks can be a problem at times (13.8% walk rate in 2025), that didn’t really hurt his overall numbers throughout the season. Pairing him with Palencia at the backend of the bullpen would be a nice starting point in revamping this bullpen.