Chicago Cubs: Pedro Strop quietly dominates yet again in 2018

The Chicago Cubs longest-tenured reliever, Pedro Strop brought stability, high-leverage dominance and his rampant emotions to the mound in 2018.

After watching the Chicago Cubs fall to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2017 National League Championship Series in just five games, it became abundantly clear that there was a seismic shift happening within in the league and that shift has shown especially apparent this past season.

We now live in the Bullpen Era.

As the series drew to a close and the Dodgers stifled any prospect of a second straight World Series championship for the North Siders, Theo Epstein immediately went into savant-mode. He witnessed the importance of the league’s direction, devoting a large portion of the offseason to retooling Chicago’s bullpen.

He signed several key free agents, including Brandon Morrow and Steve Cishek, to help bolster the bullpen.  While great additions to the team, the most notable late-inning arm in 2018 was, once again, a familiar face.

Pedro Strop had a career year in 2018, amplifying the importance of his presence on the team, helping the Cubs become the best bullpen the National League and second overall in the Majors, behind only the Houston Astros.

Chicago Cubs: Lighting a fire under teammates on and off the diamond

Known as a clubhouse ambassador of sorts, Strop takes great pride in ensuring that he is a great teammate and goes to great lengths at managing the team’s morale.  His unselfishness certainly doesn’t go unnoticed.

“I try to put my teammates in the same mood every time,” Strop said this season. “Sometimes you’re in a bad mood, but I make sure they’re in a good mood by the time they go and pitch.”

During a road trip to Kansas City, the team paid their respects to the positive clubhouse leader by devoting a “Dress Like Pedro Strop” day that saw the players and coaches dress in their gaudiest, flashiest garb.

Throughout the years and especially during the high and low points of this season, he seemed to always lift the spirits of everyone around him, whether it was with his signature bright and playful smile or his “lead by example” emotion on the mound.  The always animated Strop seems to have a knack for firing up his teammates.

Never being one to turn away from big moments, he decides to face them head-on.  That’s the mentality of Pedro Strop.  After suffering a hamstring injury in Washington late in the season, he returned with that gusto on full display in the NL Wild Card game at Wrigley Field.

Chicago Cubs: It’s time to make Strop a Cub for life

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An injury of the magnitude of which Strop suffered, would usually take four to six weeks to recover from.  However, after just two weeks, the right-hander returned to the hill.

He was nowhere near 100 percent, but accepted the challenge in order to give the Cubs a fighting chance to advance past the winner-take-all Wild Card game against the Colorado Rockies.

In intense pain, Strop mustered up enough intestinal fortitude to pitch a scoreless ninth inning, giving the Cubs a chance to win with a walk-off in the bottom frame. He did this despite knowing full well that his injury would render him incapable of pitching if the Cubs were to advance to the next round.

Of course, Chicago lost the ballgame in 13 innings after a surprise RBI base hit from Colorado’s Tony Wolters, but Strop, once again, proved how gutsy of a player he is and that he deserves a place on the team in the future.

Chicago seems pretty much guaranteed to pick up Strop’s option for 2019. The bigger question is whether or not the front office makes a move to keep their longtime stopper on the North Side for years to come.

He’s truly been everything you want in a player – not just a reliable arm, but a leader in the clubhouse. He has been an understated heartbeat for the Cubs for more than a half decade – and he’s earned the right to carry that role for years to come.