On Wedesday, prior to the series finale in Arizona, the Cubs sent down right-hander Daniel Palencia and left-hander Luke Little, as well as promoting Hayden Wesneski and off-season signing newcomer Colten Brewer from Triple-A Iowa. The moves followed a crazy game on Tuesday that the Diamondbacks won 12-11 in 10 innings, in which the Cubs used 6 of a possible 8 pitchers in the bullpen, a unit which has overall had its struggles early in the season.

For Palencia, he’d pitched 3 games for the Northsiders, compiling 4 earned runs on 6 hits, 7/5 K/BB ratio and 2.17 WHIP across 6 innings. For Little, he’d pitched 7 games, allowing 2 earned runs on 4 hits, a 5/5 K/BB ratio with a 1.35 WHIP across 6.2 innings. Palencia is raw, as he worked up through the Cubs system quickly. He may realistically still need some time with the Triple-A team to work out some kinks, so it makes sense on his end. Given the fact that Little only debuted just during the 2023 season, it’s easy to understand why he was sent there too. Although I do think Little is more consistent than Palencia, and given that Drew Smyly is the only other lefty currently in the bullpen, it perhaps makes more sense if Little would’ve stuck in Chicago. The Cubs are seeming to put a lot of faith in Smyly and Mark Leiter Jr., who is a reverse-splits pitcher (a right-hander who fares better vs. left-handed sluggers, and vice versa) to carry the primary load vs. lefties out of the bullpen.

Wesneski’s proven himself to be a much more valuable bullpen piece than starter during his few stints, and that proved true again as in his first appearance back with the team in the 2024 season as he threw 4 shutout innings in relief of starter Jordan Wicks. While Wesneski owns experience with the big-league team, whenever Colten Brewer makes his next appearance, it will be his Cubs team debut. He does, however, own MLB experience, making his debut with the Padres in 2018, then pitching in Boston across parts of 2019, 2020 and 2021, then playing with the Yankees in 2023. Aside from his 58 appearances in 2019, however, he’s never pitched more than 11 games in each of the other 4 seasons (26 total games). The stats aren’t amazing; a career 4.98 ERA in 84 games, 92/61 strikeout to walk ratio and 1.77 WHIP in 99.1 innings. The Cubs are banking on experience with him and Wesneski to help them in the bullpen over young guys like Palencia or Little.

Player stats credit; Baseball Reference

Photo Credit; Medium

By : Nick

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