The Chicago Cubs are shifting right-hander Edward Cabrera into a relief role as they try to steady a bullpen that has leaked late-inning leads in September.
The latest setback came Tuesday night against the Milwaukee Brewers. Closer Jacob Webb gave up a game-tying home run to Jackson Chourio, and Chicago fell 4-3. It was Webb’s third straight blown save after he took over the ninth inning when injuries thinned the relief corps.
Webb had retired the first two hitters in the ninth before Christian Yelich singled and Chourio drove a 394-foot homer to left. Manager Craig Counsell did not hide his frustration with the stretch.
“You gotta get outs,” Counsell said. “It’s our job. They’re gonna do it. It hurts when it happens. It hurts when it happens consecutively. We got eight guys down there; those are the guys we’re going to rely on. We gotta figure it out.”
Former closer Daniel Palencia has allowed seven earned runs over six appearances since coming off the injured list. Deadline addition Ryan Zeferjahn owns a 6.23 ERA in a Cubs uniform. Hunter Harvey and Phil Maton also have been sidelined for stretches this summer, leaving Webb as the default ninth-inning option.
Cabrera, 28, is working his way back from a right middle-finger blister that has flared up more than once this season. He also missed time earlier with a left hamstring strain. The Cubs have used his latest rehab stint at Triple-A Iowa to get him comfortable coming out of the bullpen.
He has made two appearances there, both in relief.
Chicago acquired Cabrera in January from the Miami Marlins in a deal that sent top outfield prospect Owen Caissie, infielder Cristian Hernandez and infielder-outfielder Edgardo De Leon to Miami. The Cubs hoped the hard-throwing right-hander would lock down a rotation spot after he posted an 8-7 record and 3.53 ERA in 26 starts for the Marlins in 2025, striking out 150 batters in 137 2/3 innings.
That has not happened. Cabrera is 5-5 with a 5.68 ERA in 15 starts this year, covering 76 innings with 67 strikeouts and 32 walks. The blister problems have limited his ability to stay on a starter’s workload.
He has almost no recent history in short relief. In six big-league seasons, Cabrera has made just two relief appearances, both in 2023 with Miami after a right shoulder impingement. Those were bulk outings of at least four innings, not typical one-inning stints.
Cabrera has already said he is willing to change roles.
“One hundred percent, I’d go to the bullpen,” Cabrera said. “The important thing is to be here and to be able to help the team. So yeah, if they were to ask me to come out of the bullpen, I’d happily do it.”
The Cubs like the idea of shorter bursts. Less pitch volume could keep the blister from returning and still let him use a fastball that can touch the upper 90s and a mix of breaking pitches that miss bats.
Webb, who posted a 2.21 ERA deep into August before the recent skid, remains publicly confident even after the latest homer.
“I think we’re going to get back on track,” Webb said. “I have confidence in myself. I have confidence in this team. The bullpen, the pitching staff, the hitters. I’m just tired of letting the team down right now.”
Since the start of August, Cubs relievers rank 18th in the majors in ERA and sit in the bottom 10 in both xFIP and SIERA. Those numbers help explain why the club is willing to convert a pitcher it once viewed as a mid-rotation piece.
Chicago entered Wednesday at 81-65, a half-game behind the Philadelphia Phillies for the top National League wild-card spot, with 16 games left. Counsell has said the answers have to come from the eight arms already in the major-league bullpen, not from another wave of call-ups.
Whether Cabrera can give those arms a lift will depend on how quickly he handles the new routine — warming up on short notice, entering mid-inning, and throwing fewer pitches at a higher intensity. The Cubs are already running him through simulated mid-inning entries in the minors to speed that adjustment.
If the conversion works, Chicago would add swing-and-miss stuff to a group that has been missing it when games are tight. If it does not, the same late-inning questions that followed Tuesday’s loss will follow the team into the final weeks of the regular season.
