Chicago Cubs Prospects: Demotions of these Cubs pitchers won't last long

This week the Chicago Cubs demoted left-handed pitcher Luke Little as well as right-handed pitcher Daniel Palencia.

The Cubs have been piecing their bullpen together with duct tape and safety pins for the last several years and that’s always going to lead to some frustrations from fans.

This year, the team actually made a rare multi-year investment in the bullpen in the form of Hector Neris and he has struggled to say the least.

Beyond that, they traded a very promising young starter for reliever Yency Almonte (along with Michael Busch), and transitioned Drew Smyly into a bullpen role where he was significantly stronger at the end of 2023. 

That being said, the thing that has yet to yield results, but likely will turn a bad bullpen into a strong one is obvious:

The Chicago Cubs are trying to fix the bullpen through the farm.

Palencia was being brought up as a starter as recently as last season. He made the transition to the bullpen because the organization believed in him enough to know that he could be valuable to the team in 2023 and he proved them right.

For that matter, so did Little. When Little arrived in Chicago in 2023, he pitched extremely well and he did the same thing in spring training this season, but he’s struggled a bit lately getting swing and miss despite exceptional velocity and an imposing frame.

Right now, the Cubs bullpen appears to be in shambles, but it’s important to know that players like Little and Palencia aren’t gone for long. 

They’ll be back in the majors soon enough and when they are they’ll likely be followed shortly thereafter by players like Porter Hodge and Michael Arias who are looking like impact bullpen arms as well.