Ryan Pressly creeping towards the heralded Cubs' bullpen 'circle of trust'

It has been such a roller coaster watching the Cubs bullpen try to cobble together the last 6-8 outs of a ballgame, and it feels like the "trusted" parties are not consistent either. A few bad games, they are outside the "circle of trust" among fans, and a few good games bring someone in. It's exhausting, and we are not even in May yet. This is the nature of bullpens in baseball in general.

Over the first (domestic) week or so of the season, closer Ryan Pressly and veteran lefty Caleb Thielbar were nowhere near the circle of trust. Pressly had a major walk problem, and it was an adventure recording his first few saves, while Thielbar had a rough five-game stretch of giving up four runs and five walks. Over the past few games, Thielbar has come up with some big outs (including the save in extras on Tuesday night), and Pressly hasn't walked anyone over his past four games heading into Sunday.

Ryan Pressly appears to be overcoming his early season woes

One could say, as of Saturday evening, those two are creeping into the circle, but all it takes is one bad game from either to get the boot. The leash for trusted relievers is...rather short in the eyes of fans, though maybe not to the manager. Pressly has been effective over his past few appearances, but not dominating. He only has four strikeouts in 10 innings of work, which is typically not ideal for a closer. His defense has helped him out with a few big plays from Dansby Swanson and Michael Busch. Thielbar has induced some weak contact over his past few games and gotten some tough outs. Time will tell how this will last, hopefully for the better.

An interesting case is Daniel Palencia. The flame-throwing righty has promise with his stuff, but command has been a huge issue over his first few stints in the Majors. He recently came up and so far has looked pretty good, hopefully he can keep it up over a larger sample size. The location of his fastball and the run he has put on some of his pitches has been notable, but if not located well, he will either walk guys or get hit very hard. Trust is building, but still TBD over a larger sample size.

On the flip side, one of the highest-trusted arms for a while has been Porter Hodge. His stuff has looked nasty far, and he enters Sunday with a 12.1 K/9. Things were looking good until the crazy game Friday when he got rocked and his ERA ballooned to 7.45. The bad outing seems more like an outlier than a trend, as these things happen, but he is still a relatively inexperienced reliever, so we will see how he responds. Do not think it's time to overact yet, but time will tell.

A disappointment so far for a guy who was expected to begin the year as a trusted pen arm is Eli Morgan, who went on the IL after posting a 12.27 ERA in 7.1 innings. That trust fell off quickly and will look to get back into form once he's healthy again. A similar can be said for veteran Ryan Brasier, who has been hurt since Japan.

The two guys who have been consistently trusted have been Brad Keller and Julian Merryweather. Hopefully, they keep it up because they have needed to come in and get some big outs, and if Pressly struggles in the closer spot, one of them could be called upon for save spots. We are not there yet, but it's a possibility. In the end, this bullpen will evolve and change as the season goes on. Guys will get hurt, DFA, sent down, released, moved roles, and others will come in within or outside of the organization. This journey is never smooth...so hang on.