It’s time for your favorite game of picking a free agent who used to be great, had a bad season and now hope they’ll have a resurgence with the Cubs. Sorry, Tanner Scott just does not seem to be in the team’s plans this offseason, so let’s take a look at the other free agent closers, who have solid upside at a not-so high-risk price.
By the way, apparently the Cubs are one of the most active teams searching for bullpen upgrades, which duh, right? Jed Hoyer simply cannot repeat his biggest failure from last offseason again this year. That bullpen needs to be tightened up from the start.
Hearing that Cubs are one of the most active teams in the industry on bullpen arms. Good names available, via trade and free agency. @WatchMarquee @670TheScore
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) December 2, 2024
The team has added some arms to build up the middle relief depth, but it’s time to add an impact reliever.
Fun fact, the White Sox got Jordan Romano in the 2018 Rule 5 draft from the Toronto Blue Jays and was immediately traded to the Texas Rangers for cash. A few weeks before Opening Day 2019, the Rangers returned Romano to the Blue Jays and a year later the right-hander emerged as one of the best relievers in baseball.
The 2024 season was a dud for Romano, who only made 15 appearances for the Blue Jays and was terrible. He posted a 6.59 ERA in 13.2 innings. As you can probably guess the pitcher missed a lot of time because of injury. Romano first hit the injured list right out of spring training, missing the first few weeks of the regular season with elbow inflammation. Romano returned in mid-April, but went back on the IL in late May and after a few months without getting better the Blue Jays shut him down for another six weeks.
Romano’s season was officially shut down in early September. The righty did have arthroscopic surgery to repair an impingement in his throwing elbow in July. So, why the hell should the Cubs pursue this dude?
Well, I wasn’t joking about Romano being one of the best relievers in baseball. From 2020-23, a total of 24 relievers tossed 200+ innings and Romano’s 2.29 ERA during that stretch ranked third overall, trailing Emmanuel Clase and Devin Williams.
During that four-season time period, Romano had a strikeout rate of 30.8% (same as Tanner Scott) and converted 97 of 109 save opportunities. A two-time All-Star, a track record of success being a shutdown closer and maybe you get him at a discount coming off a down year? Just get an OK on the medicals and get me Jordan Romano closing out games for the Cubs in 2025 please and thank you.
Of course, the Blue Jays know better than anyone how good Romano is when healthy and they’re trying to make a reunion happen.
Non-tendering Jordan Romano was a “very difficult” decision, according to Ross Atkins, who says Blue Jays remain interested in their longtime closer and are “heavily pursuing” a reunion.
— Ben Nicholson-Smith (@bnicholsonsmith) December 3, 2024
“We have no medical concerns,” Atkins said.
But maybe there are some hurt feelings after he was non-tendered? We’ll see. At the very least the Cubs have to give Romano a call.
Right-handed pitcher Kyle Finnegan was a surprise non-tender by the Washington Nationals a few weeks ago, but I guess there are some trends that could be worrisome for the 31-year-old. However, since making his MLB debut back in 2020, Finnegan has been among one of the most durable bullpen arms around and while he’s not considered a shut down closer he’s converted 84% of those chances the past two years.
In 2024, Finnegan was 38-of-43 in save opportunities, but it’s not like he was making things look easy. I mean, the righty has been steady, making 66+ appearances with an ERA between 3.50 and 3.80 for the past four seasons. You normally expect your closers to have an ERA in the twos.
But maybe it takes a different set of eyes to unlock Finnegan’s full potential. Maybe all it takes is changing his pitch mix.
Finnegan feels like one of the more obvious stop-throwing-70%-fastball guys in the league. ????♂️
— Lance Brozdowski (@LanceBroz) November 23, 2024
If the Nats won’t do it another team will. (*cough* Cubs *cough*) https://t.co/d6fHKC1Fxg
Among relievers with 60+ IP in 2024, Finnegan had the fourth-highest hard-hit percentage at 36.9%. So maybe the Nationals didn’t think he was worth giving nearly $9 million in 2025, but with a new gameplan maybe it pays off on a short-term deal with the Cubs.
Finnegan was incredible through the first half of 2024 and was added to the NL All-Star team. He posted a 1.98 ERA through his first 36.1 innings of the season. He had a brutal blown save later in July, giving up five earned runs after only recording one out, so that inflated his second-half ERA. Talent is there, but the Cubs could get more out of him.
All right, so Romano and Finnegan have multiple years of closing experience, but José Leclerc is the one who has actually performed on the biggest stage for his team. The right-hander wasn’t even the closer for the Texas Rangers during the 2023 season, but once the playoffs started Leclerc was trusted to close out games and he was spectacular.
Leclerc set an MLB record by becoming the first pitcher to close his team’s first seven games of the postseason in 2023. He had three saves and allowed one run in 7.1 innings during that stretch. That run came to an end in Game 5 of the ALCS against the Houston Astros, but Leclerc’s confidence wasn’t shaken because he proceeded to throw 3.1 scoreless innings in the World Series.
Yet, outside of that 2023 postseason, we haven’t really seen Leclerc as a closer for an extended period of time. He made his MLB debut in 2016, was amazing in 2018 (1.56 ERA in 57.2 IP) regressed a bit the next few years and was good again in 2022 and 2023.
Sure, the 4.32 ERA in 2024 doesn’t scream sign this guy, but how about 89 strikeouts in 66.2 IP? That’s a 30.9% strikeout rate and you can probably point to a .314 BABIP, 50 points higher than his career average, as to why Leclerc gave up more runs this past season.
In 2022 and 2023, Leclerc posted sub-3 ERAs, 2.83 and 2.68, respectively. Overall, the 30-year-old has a career 3.27 ERA in 350 MLB games. But again, he hasn’t done it as a closer, only 41 saves with a career high of 14 in 2019. Beggars can’t be choosers, so maybe it’s worth trusting Leclerc to be the guy and if he’s not, I’d still like him as a dependable set-up man in the bullpen.
