Spring training began in earnest on Wednesday, because managers around Major League Baseball were starting to answer some of their teams’ most pressing questions.
It was an exciting offseason for the Chicago Cubs, but one mild uncertainty was Daniel Palencia’s status as the team’s closer. The 26-year-old won the job early in the season while exhibiting some of the most electrifying stuff in the sport, but after sustaining a shoulder injury in September, he returned late in the season as more of a setup man.
Cubs manager Craig Counsell could have left the closer question open-ended on Wednesday, as the regular season is still six weeks away. But as ESPN’s Jesse Rogers reported, Counsell declared the hard-throwing Venezuela native as the ninth-inning man for Chicago, barring some sort of unexpected setback.
“I asked Craig Counsell if Daniel Palencia would get the ninth inning if the (regular) season was starting now,” Rogers wrote. “Instead of the usual ‘we have outs-getter’ answer, he simply said, ‘Yes.'”
Palencia appeared in 54 games for the Cubs last season, pitching to a 2.91 ERA and striking out 61 batters in 52 2/3 innings. He racked up 22 saves in 25 chances, after entering the season with just one major league save to his name in his first two small-sample seasons with the Cubs.
After losing Brad Keller to free agency and trading Andrew Kittredge to the Baltimore Orioles, the Cubs didn’t have too many other options internally to pitch the ninth inning. Porter Hodge briefly held that role in 2024, but took himself out of the conversation for this year with a 6.27 ERA in 36 outings last season.
Palencia seems like the right man for the closer job, but the Cubs brought in a plethora of relievers this offseason, and should be prepared to make changes on the fly if necessary.
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