A revitalized Ben Brown is dominating out of the Cubs' bullpen. His new sinker and striking performances signal a true breakthrough, solidifying his valuable role.
The breakout is real for Chicago Cubs pitcher Ben Brown.
After struggling with consistency throughout the 2025 season, Brown appears to finally be putting it all together. He looks like a completely different pitcher on the mound and continues to display his potential in the Cubs bullpen.
Last year, Brown spent half the season in Chicago’s rotation and the other half in the bullpen. However, he wasn’t really effective in either role. He had a 6.30 ERA across 15 starts and a 4.99 ERA in 10 relief appearances.
Now, he has taken his game to the next level.
The right-hander added a sinker this past offseason, and that has helped his overall numbers in the early going. That pitch has a 33.3% putaway rate to go with two strikeouts and an 88.4 mph average exit velocity.
Adding a third pitch to his arsenal has proved to be a real difference so far. Brown is throwing his sinker around 20% of the time and is primarily using that pitch against right-handed batters. He has thrown 58 sinkers to righties compared to only one against lefties.
Brown has been one of the Cubs' top bullpen arms to start the season. He has a 2.37 ERA with 20 strikeouts in 19 innings pitched and has been especially strong in relief over the last two weeks.
The 26-year-old has not allowed a run in each of his past four relief appearances. Brown has given up seven hits, walked two, and struck out nine batters across 8 ⅓ innings in these four recent appearances.
His best performance during this stretch actually came in his most recent relief appearance against the Phillies on Wednesday. He came to relieve Matthew Boyd in the fifth inning and earned the win behind 2 ⅓ shutout innings and five strikeouts.
Brown’s strong start to the season has been a pleasant surprise for the Cubs. He is giving the team much needed length out of the bullpen and has stepped up with relievers like Phil Maton, Hunter Harvey, and Daniel Palencia all on the 15-day injured list.
There is also reason to believe that Brown can keep this up moving forward.
His expected ERA (2.92), strikeout rate (26%), walk rate (7.8%), barrel rate (3.8%), and hard-hit rate (35.3%) all rank in the upper half of the league. His Breaking Run Value (3) on Baseball Savant ranks in the 95th percentile as well.
That’s a major difference from last year, when Brown ranked in the bottom 25% of the league in expected ERA (4.55), average exit velocity (92.4 mph), barrel rate (11.4%), and hard-hit rate (47.3%).
If Brown can continue to limit hard contact and keep his barrel rate down, he can remain a solid bullpen arm for the remainder of the season. That’s how much potential he has in this Cubs bullpen in 2026.