Chicago Cubs: Kyle Barraclough should be on Cubs' radar

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ARLINGTON, TX – JULY 24: Kyle Barraclough #46 of the Miami Marlins throws against the Texas Rangers in the eighth inning at Globe Life Park in Arlington on July 24, 2017 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

Upgrading the Chicago Cubs bullpen has been on the to-do list all winter. If the team closes the door on Wade Davis, could a 27-year-old Miami Marlins hurler be a target?

The Chicago Cubs entered the offseason with multiple holes in the bullpen to fill. The club lost Wade Davis, Brian Duensing and Koji Uehara to free agency. Hector Rondon was soon after designated for assignment.

All signs indicated big moves regarding the bullpen. But, this winter, they certainly aren’t alone.

Everyone is looking for back-end help, because that’s the direction the game is going. Starting pitchers are throwing fewer pitches in shorter starts. Once October hits, bullpens are eating up five or more innings on a nightly basis.

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Naturally, when starting pitchers are pulled prior to the fifth or sixth inning, the burden of responsibility falls on the shoulders of relief pitchers. Most teams that consider themselves contenders are aiming to make supplemental additions to their pen.

The free agent market has been developing especially slow this winter. In fact, it’s December 21 and Yu Darvish, Jake Arrieta, J.D. Martinez, Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Lorenzo Cain, Todd Fraizer and Jonathan Lucroy are without a home just days before Christmas.

The reliever market has, thus far, been moving more quickly than the position player and starting pitcher market. The Cubs have already inked a couple of right-handers to two-year deals in Brandon Morrow (2/$21M) and Steve Cishek (2/$13M), but there is still at least one spot up for grabs.

That could be filled with a reunion with Davis, but other teams are heavily interested in him as well.

CHICAGO, IL – SEPTEMBER 30: Wade Davis #71 of the Chicago Cubs (L) and Rene Rivera #7 celebrate their win over the Cincinnati Reds at Wrigley Field on September 30, 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. The Chicago Cubs won 9-0. (Photo by Jon Durr/Getty Images) /

Will familiarity lure Davis back to Chicago?

The fact he knows the clubhouse culture on a first-hand basis and was a part of a deep playoff push bodes well. It’s fair to say that if the Cubs are as interested in him as other teams, they’d have a slight advantage.

If worst comes to worst and Davis decides to go elsewhere, the Cubs will more than likely search the trade market for a “diamond in the rough”. Allow me to propose a potential target: Kyle Barraclough.

Barraclough, 27, was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the seventh round of the 2012 draft. Oddly enough, he was later traded to the Marlins in July 2015 for – Steve Cishek.

He made his big-league debut later in that season and has quietly been a very successful reliever over the last three years, totaling 219 strikeouts in in 163.0 innings. That’s good for a 31.7 percent strikeout rate (want) with a 2.87 ERA from 2015-2017.

A swing and a miss

That strikeout rate has fluxed in his three years of service, starting at 30.6 percent (20.4 percent league average) in his rookie season. In 2016, that number jumped up to 36.9 percent (almost twice the rate of the 21.1 percent league average in 2016).

He took a step backwards in the K-department in 2017, only sitting down that opposition at a 26.6 percent clip (still significantly better than the league average 21.6 percent in 2017).

That could be because between 2016 and 2017, his average fastball dropped from 96.6 MPH to 95.0 MPH. He hit the 10-day DL in late July with a right shoulder impingement, so that shouldn’t come as a surprise, nor should it necessarily be a cause for concern.

He came back after the injury and turned in a much better second half. His strikeout rate jumped from 24.5 to 30.4 percent. Meanwhile, his walk rate deflated from 14.7 to 10.8, which is a significant improvement but still above the league average of 8.5 percent.

MIAMI, FL – APRIL 17: Kyle Barraclough #46 of the Miami Marlins delivers a pitch against the Atlanta Braves at Marlins Park on April 17, 2016 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Eliot J. Schechter/Getty Images) /

Keeping opposing hitters off-balance

From 2015 to 2016, his contact management took a nice step forward, but then those numbers took a step backward in 2017:

2015 – 18.0 Soft%, 50.0 Med%, 32.0 Hard% (league average – 18.6, 52.5, 28.8)
2016 – 19.7 Soft%, 51.7 Med%, 28.6 Hard% (league average – 18.8, 49.9, 31.4)
2017 – 16.5 Soft%, 57.1 Med%, 26.5 Hard% (league average – 18.9, 49.3, 31.8)

With the significant improvement from his first to second year, and the significant regression from his sophomore year to 2017, it’s plausible the shoulder injury marred his results. Regardless, he remains an intriguing arm that could be available.

Barraclough’s three-pitch arsenal consists of a plus fastball, plus slider and noteworthy changeup. Those three pitches make the pitcher affectionately and appropriately nicknamed “Bear Claw” one of the highest upside arms in the league that nobody has heard of.

At age 27 and only 163 innings of mileage on his arm, he has one year before he hits arbitration and won’t reach the open market until 2022. He represents a young, cost-controlled, high-upside bullpen stud. I reckon that having an opportunity to play under new Cubs pitching coach, Jim Hickey, will help him cut down on the walks and possibly unlock even more potential.

The Marlins have already parted ways with Giancarlo Stanton (Yankees), Marcell Ozuna (Cardinals) and Dee Gordon (Mariners) and players like Christian Yelich and J.T. Realmuto may be the next ones to go despite recent reports:

Another Marlins trade chip? Don’t count it out.

It’s very possible that the Marlins will hold onto someone with as much upside and control as Barraclough, but if slashing payroll is the objective, then maybe they’ll want to avoid arbitration altogether with a player that will certainly be looking for a pay raise. Maybe they’ll try to get something of value out of him while the team is clearly in a rebuild.

Next: Are the Cubs partly to blame for Miami tear-down?

If that’s the case, you can bet your bottom dollar that the Cubs will be interested in his services. He’d fit into Chicago’s bullpen perfectly and would join Morrow and Cishek as the newest additions to the bullpen. Those three along with Mike Montgomery, Carl Edwards Jr., Justin Grimm, Justin Wilson and Pedro Strop would form a very good, albeit a very unheralded bullpen.

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Chicago Cubs: Kyle Barraclough should be on Cubs’ radar