Chicago Cubs pitcher Ben Brown had high expectations coming into the 2025 season. He began the year in the rotation, slotting in as the No. 5 starter, but by the time the Cubs were ready for the postseason Brown was out of the picture entirely. The right-hander couldn’t keep his role as a starter and had mixed results out of the bullpen. Craig Counsell didn’t know which version of Brown would show up, so the pitcher headed into the offseason needing to make a change.
Brown tried to do it in 2025, as he experimented with a kick change, but the search for that elusive third pitch fell flat. Despite lighting up the radar gun with a fastball that touched 100 mph in the past and backing it up with a nasty knuckle curve ball, Brown ended the 2025 season with a 5.92 ERA in 106.1 innings. Out of 127 pitchers who threw at least 100 innings last year Brown’s opponent batting average of .278, ranked eighth highest.
It didn’t matter if Brown was throwing 97 mph and then dropping a curve ball in the dirt because teams knew he only had two pitches and all they had to do was lock in when a pitch was over the plate. Brown got crushed and the chances of sticking around as a starting pitcher began to drop dramatically.
So, he had to try something new. In Monday’s game against the Kansas City Royals, Brown featured his new third pitch. Out of 30 total pitches in his two innings of work, Brown threw 12 knuckle curves, 8 four-seam fastballs and 10 sinkers. Not only was the sinker a new development in his spring training debut this year, it turns out that Brown had never thrown it in any big-league game before.
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The sinker averaged 97.4 mph on Monday, which was actually harder than his four-seamer.
Of course, Brown will only find success if his command improves. It’s not always about only throwing strikes, but where those strikes are thrown. Can he miss more barrels and avoid a high rate of hard contact? Brown has a ton of room for improvement there. In 2025, Brown had an 11.4 barrel % and 47.3 hard contact rate, finishing in the 7th and 6th percentile according to Baseball Savant. Overall, hitters put up an average exit velocity of 92.4 mph against Brown. That was in the one percentile. Bad. Really bad.
So, we’ll see if the sinker can change Brown’s future. Right now, he’s on the outside looking in as a depth option for the starting rotation. As a guy who has come up as a starter, Brown will obviously want to continue in that role, but if there aren’t significant improvements from him, then the Cubs will have to do what’s best for them as a team.
That could mean Brown eventually moves into a permanent reliever spot, but for now let’s hope his new third pitch changes the course of his career.
