Veteran pitcher with an opt-out clause could soon become a Cubs bullpen answer

It'll likely be quite some time before the Chicago Cubs pull off a trade that catches the eyes of fans and addresses the team's laundry list of pitching injuries, but as we've talked about a lot lately, that doesn't mean Jed Hoyer and Carter Hawkins aren't combing the league looking for answers.

One such answer could exist in the form of 34-year-old right-hander Matt Bowman, who is at Triple-A St. Paul with the Minnesota Twins organization. Bowman and fellow veteran John Brebbia both have opt-outs in their respective contracts and the former checks a lot of boxes in terms of what the Cubs like.

Bowman has 22 strikeouts in 20 1/3 innings, in which he's pitched to a 1.77 ERA that's admittedly buoyed by an unsustainable 89 percent strand rate that checks in well above the MLB average of 73 percent. Even so, he's regularly maintained a ground ball rate north of 50 percent in his professional career, and the results this year speak for themselves.

Cubs' bullpen needs reinforcements - and cannot wait until August

With one of the team's big offseason gambles quickly blowing up in its face in Hunter Harvey, Hoyer needs to explore all possible avenues to shore up his bullpen mix and Bowman could be a quick, cost-effective way of doing so - even if it's just to buy some time for guys to get healthy.

Of course, for that to happen, Minnesota would need to not call Bowman up ahead of this weekend's opt-out date and, given the fact the Twins have one of the worst bullpens in all of Major League Baseball, they should probably at least give him a look before casting him off.

Brebbia, meanwhile, hasn't been good at Triple-A and, while the Cubs need pitching depth, there's little reason to think he can be part of any potential solution. He hasn't posted a full-season ERA below 4.00 since 2023 and, with St. Paul this year, has a 5.40 ERA in 18 1/3 innings of work (although a K rate near 30 percent is nice to see).

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