The Chicago Cubs have decided to move on from veteran reliever Hoby Milner, choosing to hold on to a few other pitchers in the bullpen rather than keeping the left-hander, who did have solid numbers before his appendectomy.
Milner was initially placed on outright waivers last week, but he had no suitors, as any team that would have claimed him would be on the hook for the rest of his 2026 salary. So, the Cubs did eventually designate him for assignment, and on Sunday the team officially released the 35-year-old pitcher, according to the transactions log on their team page.
Meanwhile, the Cubs’ bullpen has been horrid for the past few weeks, as several relievers have struggled. Caleb Thielbar has been on a scoreless streak in his last five outings, but I still have no clue why the Cubs are hanging on to Trent Thornton, who has had declining metrics and has been hit hard for several weeks. Maybe it’s as simple as Thornton being a right-handed pitcher and Milner being a lefty, but you can just kind of see that Thornton’s numbers don’t tell the whole story on the mound. He’s been very fortunate to get by with a 3.45 ERA in 43 games, but the cracks are showing.
However, despite the 3.53 ERA in 35.2 innings this year, it wasn’t exactly like Milner was dominating hitters either. Before the Cubs released Milner, the soft-tossing lefty only recorded 18 strikeouts in 38 games, coming out to a 12.1 K%, which is the lowest mark of his 10-year MLB career.
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So, moving forward, Milner can sign with any team for the prorated league minimum, which would be less costly than the $600,000 he would be owed if he were claimed. As for the Cubs, they’ll be leaning on Thielbar and Ryan Rolison from the left side out of the bullpen.
A reminder that rosters do expand on Sept. 1, when the Cubs will be allowed to add one more pitcher to the active roster. There are a handful of left-handed pitchers on the 40-man roster, including Antoine Kelly, Braxton Garrett, and Jordan Wicks. And, well, the Cubs are also hoping that Justin Steele will be able to contribute as a bullpen option down the stretch as he’s working to return from his elbow surgery.
