3 minor league pitchers the Cubs need to get a look at down the stretch

With the trade deadline past, the Chicago Cubs can now focus the rest of the year on development and answering questions about the players they have. A miracle run toward the playoffs isn't likely, so the goal should be preparing for 2025 however they can. One area where they can start shaping the roster for the future is in the bullpen.

The Cubs didn't trade off nearly as many pieces as expected this year. Their reclamation project turned bullpen stalwart Mark Leiter Jr. was shipped off to the Yankees for a pair of solid Top-30 prospects, including future relief candidate Jack Neely, but the rest of the crew is still in place, including guys that were candidates to be moved like Hector Neris and Tyson Miller. They also added Nate Pearson in a deal with Toronto in hopes of tapping into his incredible raw stuff.

Fewer moves mean less room to try out some of their minor league arms that are knocking on the door of the majors. Still, the team must start to sort through guys on the 40-man to determine who their best options are to round out the current relief core. Ethan Roberts was already given the call-up in place of Leiter, but there are other guys who should be cycled in throughout the rest of the season. Let's look at three that especially need a shot at Wrigley in August and September.

1. Daniel Palencia

Daniel Palencia has been up and down with the Cubs throughout the year with very little to show for it thus far. In 11 innings pitched, he holds a 6.55 ERA and a 1.727 WHIP, albeit with a 3.43 FIP that indicates he was performing a bit better than the results say. He's going to remain on the team's radar though because of a big arm with closer potential, assuming he can cut down his walk rate.

Overall, Iowa hasn't been much kinder to him (6.43 ERA in 21 innings with 6.9 walks per nine), but he's started to put things together of late. Since returning from the injured list on June 3, he's only given up runs in three of the ten games he's appeared in, and while his ERA still isn't great (5.19), he's holding batters to a .194 batting average and .258 slugging percentage. The rub, again, is the walk rate which still gets him into trouble despite otherwise blowing hitters away.

Even with concerns about his control, he's still worth bringing back up for a spell for an extended look because of his ability to limit slug. Like many of the Cubs' young arms, he has the stuff to succeed at the big league level right now as long as the free passes are limited. His contemporaries Porter Hodge and Luke Little have either figured it out or have begun to settle in, and there's no harm in bringing him back up at some point to see if he can do the same.

3. Caleb Kilian

The Cubs have not seen Caleb Kilian all year despite initially having a promising shot to make the major league roster in Spring Training. A teres major strain in his right shoulder ultimately cut those hopes short, but he's finally nearing the end of his rehab assignment after months of recovery. Moreover, he's now entirely focused on relieving instead of starting, which could fast-track his return to Wrigley and make his potential future on the big league team much easier to imagine.

Coming into 2024, things looked brighter than ever as he posted a fantastic 1.50 ERA in his six innings in spring with some extra life on his fastball. It was a tantalizing showing for a pitcher who has disappointed with a 12.42 ERA in the majors and plenty of minor-league struggles since he arrived in the Kris Bryant trade in 2021. Although things haven't looked good overall in his very limited time back in Triple-A this year, all of that deserves a huge asterisk when considering the injury and the conversion.

There are signs he could be slowly getting back to that exciting Spring Training form too. Kilian has been clocked at 97.2 mph as recently as Sunday's game and has even touched 99 on the radar gun during his rehab assignment. His most recent performance was also his best of the year, with three innings of scoreless baseball. The velocity alone is reason to believe this is a different Kilian than the one that struggled so mightily in his earlier years with the organization. It's probably for the better for now that he continues to rack up innings in Iowa, but a call-up has to be considered to see how these changes translate to the majors.

For all their talent, these three guys still only scratch the surface of the bevy of pitching the Cubs have been developing in the minors. They're closer than ever to having a pipeline of arms that can be relied upon for supplemental pieces throughout the years. Hopefully, the rest of 2024 can be used to help define which of them