Chicago Cubs: Getting Pedro Strop back isn’t the answer in the bullpen

Despite the fact Pedro Strop has been the most consistent part of the Chicago Cubs bullpen for a half-decade, he’s not the whole solution down the stretch.

Ladies and gentlemen, can I have please have your attention. I’ve just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story, and I need all of you to stop what you’re doing and listen – the Chicago Cubs have a bullpen problem.

That’s right. In case you spent your winter on some remote beach without access to the outside world or you simply chose to bury your head in the sand and trust the front office’s bottom of the barrel, penny-pinching plan to address the shorthanded relief corps this offseason, via use of a Ron Burgundy quote, I needed to fill you in.

For the rest of us who said the bullpen was a problem literally all winter, throughout spring training and into the regular season – the problem we all knew was coming at some point has reared its ugly head. It took longer than anticipated, but the Cubs need bullpen help – and Xavier Cedeno and Tony Barnette are not going to cut it.

Chicago Cubs: There’s more to fixing the pen than Strop’s return

Chicago has blown nearly half of their save opportunities thus far in 2019. Without the guy signed to close ball games (Brandon Morrow) or his fill-in (Pedro Strop), the Cubs have gone with the ever-worrisome closer-by-committee approach.

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It’s not that such a concept can’t work – surely, it can. But when you lack shutdown arms to step into that void, you feel more like Donkey in the movie Shrek, terrified as you make your way across a rickety bridge over a boiling lake of lava.

But never fear. Strop is nearing a return after hitting the shelf with a hamstring injury that limited him to just a dozen ineffective innings of work. (To be fair, his 3.68 FIP is far kinder to him than his unsightly 5.06 ERA – but he wasn’t near as sharp as we were accustomed to seeing him).

In my mind, though, that’s only part of the solution here. Strop slots back into his setup role – one where he’s been incredibly successful in his Cubs career. The likes of Steve Cishek shifts back to a fireman-type spot in the pen, used whenever Joe Maddon gets the inkling and literally has no one else he’s willing to trust.

So while Strop definitely improves the outlook in the pen, he’s actually only part of what Chicago needs to do. The other piece? Well, they need to do the same thing they’ve had on their wish list since the holidays: get a shutdown closer.