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Tom Ricketts and the Chicago Cubs front office have been busy all day with signings, first off it was Seiya Suzuki and then they added two more depth pitchers in Steven Brault, and David Robertson, and now just added another depth type pitcher, instead of going to sleep.
It’s been reported that the Chicago Cubs have signed left-handed pitcher Daniel Norris to a major league deal.
The Cubs are signing another pitcher, lefty Daniel Norris, to a ML deal, per source. Was with Detroit and Milwaukee last year.
— Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) March 17, 2022
Norris was a former starting pitcher with the Detroit Tigers, in 2017 he pitched in 101.2 innings with a 5.31 ERA, and then he pitched over 140 innings in 2019 with a 4.49 ERA.
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In the bullpen for both the Tigers and Brewers during the 2021 season, he had a K/9 of 9.16, BB/9 of 4.74, HR/9 was 1.42, his FIP was 4.87, in 57 innings pitched he had a 6.16 ERA.
Norris has three pitchers, fastball, changeup, and he throws a slider. He uses his fastball about 47.5%, his changeup about 29.9%, and his slider about 22.7% according to baseball savant.
His 2021 percentile rankings according to baseball savant are:
Avg. exit velocity 1 percentile, Hard-hit% 6 percentile, xwoBA 43 percentile, xERA 43 percentile, xBA 56 percentile, xSLG 56 percentile, Barrel% 72 percentile, K% 49 percentile, BB% 12 percentile, Whiff% 57 percentile, Chase rate 24 percentile, Fastball velocity 40 percentile, and Fastball spin is 83 percentile.
Daniel Norris 2021 Projections
His ZiPS for 2021 are 9.45 K/9, 3.75 BB/9, 1.20 HR/9, with a FIP of 4.15, his ERA is projected to be 4.05, in 60 innings pitched. The Norris signing could help the Cubs in the bullpen, and also could be that long reliever type.
Steamer projections are 9.19 K/9, 3.28 BB/9, 1.19 HR/9, 43.6 GB%, his FIP 4.05, with 59 innings pitched with a 3.98 ERA.
Either way, you look at this signing, it’s good, its depth, and Norris can be productive and gives them another lefty in the bullpen with Brad Wieck, and Justin Steele if he ends up being in the bullpen.
Hopefully, this isn’t all the Cubs do for pitching depth, we need more. Matthew Boyd would be another great and solid option for the back end of the bullpen and could slide into the rotation if an injury occurs.
