One of the strengths of the 2025 Chicago Cubs lied in their bullpen, despite it being entirely redone on the fly. Finishing with a top-five ERA after May 1, the unit provided a foundation for the Cubs and gave them a good chance to close out any early lead they could secure. However, by way of how the Cubs have built their bullpens in recent years, most of their pieces will not be returning in 2026. Andrew Kittredge has already been traded, instead of having his option picked up, while Caleb Thielbar, Brad Keller, Drew Pomeranz and others are all slated to hit free agency.

As the Cubs enter free agency, they will need to replace these pitchers. Some will come through internal means; perhaps Porter Hodge rediscovers his 2024 magic, or someone like Luke Little or Ben Brown pulls a Daniel Palencia and discovers improved command and control. Regardless, they will need to shop outside of the organization as well, as they look to replicate their success. Our own Matt Trueblood outlined some of the biggest options on the market the other day, and while those players would really shore things up, recent reporting from The Athletic’s Sahdev Sharma suggests they may not look to go big-game hunting. The Cubs are pretty savvy when it comes to reliever acquisitions, and below are four under-the-radar pickups that I think may interest the Cubs as they look to fill out their bullpen:

1. Gregory Soto, LHP
Formerly of the New York Mets in 2025
The North Siders are losing both of their best left-handed options from the ‘pen and will need to find a few options from that side. In addition, one thing the Cubs’ bullpen last year lacked was swing and miss. Enter Gregory Soto, a left-handed reliever who struck out over 25% of hitters he faced last year. Coming off a season where his ERA sat a tick over four, he shouldn’t break the bank for any team looking to sign him. Soto kills lefties, with a 3.53 xFIP against them and just a .232 wOBA against in the 2025 season, but he struggled more against right-handed hitters.

The Cubs have taken pitchers such as Colin Rea and swapped out a sinker for a four-seam fastball, and I wonder if they would look to do that with Soto as well. The 2022 campaign was the last season his ERA sat under 4.00, and it was the highest his four-seam usage has been for a while. The Cubs have also had success splitting pitches like they did with Cade Horton, who throws cutter-change to lefties and sinker-slider to righties, and perhaps just getting Soto to throw the four-seam-fastball in on right-handers is the key. This feels like a buy-low candidate that the Cubs can turn into a “two-birds-one-stone” situation by solving both their lack of left-handed pitching in the bullpen and adding swing and miss.

2. Tim Mayza, LHP
Formerly of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Philadelphia Phillies in 2025
If the Cubs choose to go “under the radar” with their bullpen choices, Tim Mayza feels like a pitcher they may think they can help. Mayza offers a 94mph fastball from the left side and has had success with Toronto in 2021 and 2022, where, over the course of 155 innings, he was able to put up a 2.67 ERA and a 2.94 xFIP. The wheels fell off for the lefty in 2024 and he had a pretty serious lat injury that cost him most of the season.

The lefty came back and featured for the Phillies late in the season and the velocity looked most of the way back, but he clearly struggled with rust. His walk rate was way up (courtesy of a few bad outings) and he struggled to the tune of a near-five ERA in that month. 

If the Cubs feel like Mayza suffered from a lack of game action and that they can get him back to his previous self, he’d very much fit into their philosophy for building a bullpen of cheap, underrated reclamation projects. They have had success with Caleb Thielbar and Drew Pomeranz, two pitchers of the same mold, and they could find another success story here.

3. Luke Weaver, RHP
Formerly of the New York Yankees in 2025
Luke Weaver would help add something the Cubs need more of: strikeouts. The righty struck out 27% of opposing hitters in 2025 and the Cubs really need some more swing and miss in their bullpen. Entering his age-32 season, Weaver has established himself as a useful reliever with the Yankees and is now looking for a new home. The righty uses his fastball a lot and the Cubs were a team who enjoy having pitchers throw their four-seam fastball, so it could be a match made in heaven. 

Weaver has two things in his profile that may scare teams off, the first being that the righty is an extreme fly-ball pitcher, giving up under 30% of batted balls last year as “groundballs” according to FanGraphs, but this could be something mitigated by Wrigley Field and how pitcher-friendly it has played in recent seasons. The second is that his fastball was almost a full mph down last year, however this seemed to be an early season issue—it tracked upwards as the season went along. 

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You could do a lot worse than going with the former Yankee as a seventh or eighth +inning bridge in 2025 and once again, he’s unlikely to break the bank. But if you’re going to pass on the Edwin Diaz, Ryan Helsley, Devin Williams tier of relievers, Weaver offers an intriguing option further down the pecking order that could stabilize the backend of a bullpen. 

4.Tyler Kinley, RHP
Formerly of the Atlanta Braves in 2025
Tyler Kinley isn’t going to be at the top of many reliever free agent lists, but there’s a really good seventh-inning arm here that is quite reminiscent of Andrew Kittredge. The reliever features a slider that grades out as a 116 on FanGraphs Stuff+ shape rating, and was a +12 in terms of run value. The pitch also generated a 33.3% whiff rate. He probably isn’t as good as Kittredge on paper, but there’s enough here that you can find to get excited about.

Hidden for most of his career in Colorado, and entering his age-35 season, Kinley probably isn’t going to break anyone’s bank this offseason. There’s a pretty good chance that you can acquire Kinley for one year and for less than the $9m Andrew Kittredge is slated to make in 2026 with (now) Baltimore. He probably shouldn’t be the best reliever added to the bullpen, but as a secondary addition, he would make a lot of sense and would fit in well with any contending bullpen.

What do you think of these four options? Do you think any of them could make sense in the 2026 bullpen? Let us know in the comments below!