Chicago Cubs: Let’s not forget about the value of Steve Cishek

Amidst a campaign marred by injuries and underwhelming performance, Steve Cishek stood as a diamond in the rough in the Chicago Cubs bullpen.

The Chicago Cubs brought Steve Cishek in at the beginning of this season, on a two-year contract valued at $13 million. One year in, the side-arming right-hander has undoubtedly lived up to expectations, as he inevitably led the teams’ bullpen in overall production, while also seeing the most action of any reliever on the club.

For the Cubs, the importance of getting what they had hoped for when signing Cishek played a significant role, as they lost big-name offseason acquisition Brandon Morrow midway through the season, for the remainder of the year. It meant that Cishek was one who needed to step into an expanded role. Once he did, Cishek certainly relished the opportunity, making the most of it in helping the club back to the playoffs.

Although Cishek finds himself on the wrong side of 30, he still found a way to have one of his best seasons of his entire career in 2018. In fact, outside of the limited time he spent with the Tampa Bay Rays, Cishek did post a career year, garnering hope for himself as well as the Wrigley faithful for another strong year in 2019.

Chicago Cubs: Carrying the load

It is no secret to Cubs fans Steve Cishek was overworked this season. He appeared in nearly half of the games during the regular season, registering 80 games in total. The next closest guy to him was Justin Wilson,who appeared in 71 contests. That being said, Cishek led the reliever corps in total innings, firing 70 1/3 throughout his season.

The first month of the season saw Cishek appear in 14 games, pitching 13 1/3 innings. As the depth of the clubs bullpen was seemingly hefty, to see Cishek get so much work to start his season could have been seen as a precursor for things to come. In that span, Cishek finished with a 2.70 ERA, with a strikeout percentage of 20.0 percent and a walk rate of 16.7 percent. Despite the wildness, Cishek somehow managed to hold hitters to a .188 batting average and did not give up a single home run.

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By the midpoint of the regular season, Cishek had appeared in 45 games and held an insanely low 1.88 ERA with an excellent 27 percent strikeout rate and a decreased walk rate of just 9.8 percent. He held hitters to an even lower average at .178 with a 3.11 FIP. Cishek was on.

In the second half, while his overall production did drop a little bit, Cishek was still very impressive by the standard of relief pitchers, pitching to a 2.88 ERA in 35 games. While his FIP did jump up to a 3.97, his strikeout rate was still at its height of 27.2 percent, and his walk rate dropped to 9.7 percent. Cishek was even wholly limiting his home runs as he finished the season with a 0.99 HR/9 rate.

The importance of Cishek as mentioned before cannot be overshadowed by positive performances from the rest of the bullpen. Once Morrow went down right before the All-Star break, he was one who Joe Maddon and Jim Hickey came to rely on more and more. After uber setup man Pedro Strop went down with two weeks remaining in the regular season, Cishek was once again called upon and responded admirably, firing shutout ball in his limited work.

Chicago Cubs: Receiving a helping hand

The Chicago Cubs are slated to lose four relievers this offseason. Justin Wilson, Jesse Chavez, Anthony Bass and Jaime Garcia are all free agents, and while the case can certainly be made for Justin Wilson to return, as has already been for Jesse Chavez, the likes of Bass and Garcia returning do not seem very high.

While this potential could force the Cubs to give Cishek a ridiculous amount of work once again next season, the return of Brandon Morrow and Pedro Strop, both healthy and ready to contribute, will be a massive boon for Cishek. Nevertheless, Cishek will be an essential piece to the Cubs bullpen in 2019 and will probably serve some time in the setup role for Morrow to alleviate strain on Strop to keep him healthy.

Guys such as Carl Edwards Jr., who the Cubs are hoping for a resurgence as well and long-reliever Mike Montgomery should also ease the tension on Cishek, allowing the team to not have to overwork him.