December 16: The Cubs are signing a veteran left-handed reliever Caleb Thielbar, per Jesse Rogers and Jeff Passan of ESPN. The agreement between the two parties is still awaiting the completion of a physical. Thielbar is represented by ISE Baseball.
Thielbar, 39 in January, spent his entire big league career prior to the 2025 season with his hometown Twins. He signed a one-year, $2.75 million contract after suffering a setback in his final year with Minnesota and bounced back in a big way with Chicago.
In 58 innings last season, the South Dakota State player posted a sharp 2.64 earned run average and 25 holdings – the latter of which tied him with Brad Keller (also a free agent this winter) for the team leader. Thielbar struck out 25.5% of his opponents, limited walks at an excellent 5.9% clip, and kept 40.7% of batted balls against him on the ground (a career high). He scored another 3 2/3 scoreless frames in the postseason.
Although he doesn’t throw particularly hard (average fastball of 90.8 mph in ’25), Thielbar still managed to post a roughly average swing-strike percentage and an above-average strikeout percentage thanks to dominant performances from both his curveball and slider. Opponents hit just .135 and hit .231 against the former, while hitting .169 and .254 against the latter. Thielbar dominated both left-handed hitters (.161/.211/.276) and right-handed hitters (.205/.248/.342) during his lone season with the Cubs.
Thielbar is the third free-agent addition to the Cubs’ bullpen this winter, joining fellow southpaws Hobby Milner (one year, $3.75 million) and right-handed Phil Maton (two years, $14.5 million). Thielbar and Milner give manager Craig Counsell a pair of experienced lefties, both of whom he has managed before, and who create the potential for a trio of lefties, could Lucas Klein also create the club. Thielbar, Milner and Maton will work together to bridge the gap between the rotation and the young closer Daniel Palencia.
There is still room for Chicago to make further additions to the bullpen, which has at least three spots reserved for relatively untested arms. Each of their bullpen pickups have also been relatively cheap in nature thus far, leaving room for a significant addition elsewhere on the roster. The Cubs are at least loosely tied to top players as Free Agents Ranger Suarez, Tatsuya Imai, Alex Bregman And Eugene Suarezamong others.
#Cubs #resign #Caleb #Thielbar