Cubs’ Newcomb Looks Toward Bullpen for Major League Role

Once a top-three starter within the Atlanta Braves' rotation at age 29, Newcomb is looking to repurpose himself. And this time, it’s out of the bullpen.

The career 25-game winner made his MLB debut strictly as a starter in 2017. It wasn’t until the 2018 season, alongside Braves starters Mike Foltynewicz and Julio Tehran, that the left-hander began to gain notoriety.

The 2018 season saw career highs in games started (30), wins (12), innings pitched (164) and strikeouts (160) while carrying a solid 3.90 ERA, which fell within the top 20 of pitchers in the National League. 

A large part of his success was because of his wicked four-seam fastball, which ranked as the seventh-best in baseball that year via its value. Since that 2018 season though, the Brockton, Massachusetts native has never been able to find that version of his pitching self.

After an average 2019 season coming out of the Atlanta bullpen, the 2020-shortened season saw abysmal figures across just four starts, including a shocking 2.63 HR/9 and .328 batting average against.

As he struggled for most of his time in the Majors in 2021, it was becoming evident that his once “elite” fastball was deteriorating; the batting average against rose to .308 (.226 in 2018) while the whiff percentage elapsed to 19.7% (22.1% in 2018).

Ironically, the velocity of his fastball though climbed, perhaps signaling he might have been trying to alter the pitch (93 mph in 2018, 95.6 mph in 2021).

Back at Yankee Stadium, the score was now 17-4. Newcomb stuck out Marwin Gonzalez to finally end the seventh-inning shelling, but inching closer to the inevitable: being designated for assignment by his second club in two months.

Newcomb found himself back with the Triple-A Iowa Cubs one week later after going unclaimed on waivers. Just a few months prior he was here rehabbing an ankle sprain, now he was back for a totally different reason: fighting for a big league roster spot.

He began his journey back with a scoreless outing for Iowa on June 29. With some tweaks to his fastball usage, and introducing a cutter into his pitch mix, Newcomb began a stretch of finding pitching efficiency that could warrant a spot in Chicago’s bullpen.

After delivering a 1.96 ERA across seven appearances (18 1/3 innings) with 25 strikeouts and allowing just four earned runs in the month of July for Iowa. On Aug. 4, he was recalled to the Majors.

For a Chicago team that sure could use the relief pitching help, Newcomb has delivered a solid option for manager David Ross.

Since rejoining the team, he has carried a 3.38 ERA across five appearances (eight innings) in August, including a three-consecutive scoreless outing stretch for the first time since September of last year.

As Newcomb prepares to head into the offseason as a free agent, his new role reconfiguration could mean that his career trajectory, although once in question, remains in the big leagues as a resourceful reliever.