Cubs may quietly be witnessing the emergence of a homegrown bullpen weapon

There hasn't been much going well for the Chicago Cubs lately in recent weeks. The pitching staff is in tatters due to injuries, and even healthy starters like Jameson Taillon and Shota Imanaga are struggling. The lineup slumped badly enough to allow a ten-game losing streak, even after bringing up multiple prospects to try and inject some life into the offense.

That's left Cubs fans looking anywhere they can for a silver lining, and one might just be emerging in the club's bullpen. Ben Brown's promotion to the rotation has vaulted him into the All-Star conversation, but it also created a hole in a bullpen that needs relief arms capable of giving the club a second inning of relief when the starter gets pulled early or multiple key veterans are down. That's a role Ethan Roberts has stepped into admirably, and the results have been downright exciting.

The reason to keep an eye on Roberts is a simple one: he's allowed virtually no damage this year for the Cubs. In his first ten appearances for the Cubs this year, he's allowed just one run and only five hits in 13.1 innings of work. That's good for a 0.68 ERA, and only four relievers in baseball have a lower figure with at least ten innings under their belt. Those results come after a velocity spike from Roberts in Spring Training caught the eye of some in Cubs circles, including CHGO's Brendan Miller.

Ethan Roberts has great results, but the peripherals tell a less encouraging story

If Roberts were to keep anything like this up for the rest of the season, it would be an absolute game changer for this team. There are some potential red flags that call the likelihood of that happening into question, however. The biggest one is the right-hander's control issues. He's walked 14.3% of his opponents this year, which would be the 18th highest figure in baseball among relievers if he had enough appearances to qualify. That doesn't consider the two batters he's already hit this year.

That level of wildness can be workable with strikeout artists with big stuff; the Mets' Devin Williams has a 15.7% walk rate this year but has been able to mostly right the ship after a rough start. His massive 33.7% strikeout rate is good enough to be worth suffering through the rough patches, including a recent outing where he walked the bases loaded but ultimately struck out three in order to close down the game.

That's not the case for Roberts, who rarely strikes out his opponents. His 16.3% strikeout rate this year is barely even better than his walk rate, which creates a worrisome combination. While the strikeouts and the walks paint a somewhat bleak picture, there is some real room for optimism in some of Roberts's other peripherals.

A 68.8% ground ball rate is nothing short of sensational, and Roberts's sweeper is nasty enough that there's plenty of reason to believe he'll be able to keep the ball on the ground going forward. A 0% barrel rate might be a bit too much to expect, but high ground ball rates do help to prevent the worst types of contact and play very well in front of the Cubs' elite infield defense. Even if Roberts can't be a relief ace for the club, a steady diet of grounders could be all it takes to get the Cubs to July.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow