A flurry of offseason bullpen signings has yielded mixed results for Chicago, as mounting injuries and inflated ERAs leave the North Siders searching for late-inning stability.
The Chicago Cubs had to revamp their bullpen this past offseason.
That resulted in the Cubs signing Hunter Harvey, Phil Maton, Caleb Thielbar, Hoby Milner, and Jacob Webb all in free agency. Those five relievers were going to do most of the heavy lifting in the bullpen throughout the year.
However, a few of those relievers have not panned out in the early portion of the 2026 season.
The Cubs signed Harvey to a one-year, $6 million deal in early January. The right-hander allowed no runs across 10 ⅔ innings with the Kansas City Royals last year, but a pair of injuries (shoulder and groin) knocked him out for most of the year.
Unfortunately, those injuries continue to play a factor. Harvey was placed on the 15-day injured list back on April 12 due to right triceps inflammation and will be out for at least another month after having a setback in his recovery.
The veteran is dealing with a stress reaction near his triceps/shoulder, which will cause him to be shut down from throwing for a month. Then, he’ll have to build back up. That means the earliest we could see Harvey back is toward the end of June or early July.
Harvey is definitely not off to a great start with the Cubs. He allowed three runs across four innings (6.75 ERA) before landing on the IL and will now be out for the foreseeable future.
Webb has also not lived up to his contract with the Cubs early on. Although he does have a respectable 3.86 ERA across 16 ⅓ innings pitched, he has pitched far worse than his numbers suggest.
His expected ERA (5.67) is 181 points higher than his actual ERA (3.86), and Webb is allowing a ton of hard contact so far this season. Both his average exit velocity (92.5 mph) and hard-hit rate (52.1%) rank in the bottom 5% of the league.
Then, there’s Maton, who has given up the most runs among all Cubs relievers this year. He has allowed eight runs across 8 ⅓ innings pitched (8.64 ERA) and has given up multiple runs in four of his 10 relief appearances.
The right-hander also spent close to three weeks on the injured list due to right knee tendinitis. But since coming off the 15-day IL back on April 27, Maton has actually been much more efficient on the mound. He has not allowed a run in each of his last five appearances.
In Sunday’s series finale against the Texas Rangers, Maton was tasked with keeping the deficit at 1-0 in the seventh inning. He came into the game with a runner on first base with nobody out and made quick work by getting a strikeout and two groundouts (including a sac bunt).
Things appear to be trending up for Maton, but overall, these three new bullpen additions haven’t worked out in the early going.