Cubs take a flier on former first-rounder hoping he can turn his career around

One of the hallmarks of the Jed Hoyer era in Chicago has been his ability to pick up reclamation project relievers and turn them into something solid - and the signing of righty Phil Bickford to a minor-league deal fits firmly in that bucket.

Bickford, a former first-round pick of the San Francisco Giants in 2015, spent the 2024 season in the Yankees organization, getting most of his work at the Triple-A level. He was sharp, punching out more than 11 hitters per nine in 50.1 innings of late-inning work. He made only eight appearances with the big-league club and was tagged for eight earned runs and 10 hits across 8.1 frames.

That's been the story with him for some time now: successful and reliable in the minors, but unable to translate that to the bigs. Back in 2021, he looked like the next Dodgers relief weapon as a 25-year-old, making 56 appearances and working to a 2.86 ERA - but he's never come close to matching that in the years that followed.

He's bounced around since then, pitching for the Brewers and Mets in addition to the Dodgers and Yankees and, yes, that Milwaukee connection probably didn't hurt matters as Counsell was the manager there when Bickford pitched for the team in 2020 and 2021.

The right-hander gets great extension and doesn't walk many batters, relying on a two-pitch fastball-slider combo. He's not overpowering, sitting in the low-90s with the heater and, in a limited sample size, that pitch really failed him this year after he had good success with it in 2023, holding opponents to a .183 average.

His slider is a pretty average offering and it wouldn't surprise me at all to see the Cubs try and make some changes there when he reports to camp in the spring. Which brings me to my next (and most important) point. There's no harm in a minor-league deal for a guy like Bickford. Given the team's track record on these sort of signings, it makes sense - and he definitely won't be the only signing like this, so let's try to not get too worked up about it.