The Cubs are in agreement with reliever Phil Bickford on a minor league contract, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post (X link). The Rep 1 Baseball client qualified for minor league free agency at the start of the offseason.
Bickford only made eight appearances at the big league level this year. He pitched 8 1/3 innings across two stints with the Yankees, allowing nine runs on 10 hits. The 29-year-old righty turned in solid numbers in Triple-A. Bickford worked to a 3.40 ERA with an excellent 30% strikeout percentage while limiting his walks to a 7.7% clip. While that didn’t translate in his brief big league look, the former first-rounder has shown the ability to miss bats at the MLB level.
Over parts of five big league seasons, Bickford sports an above-average 26.1% strikeout rate. He punched out a quarter of opponents across a career-high 67 1/3 innings between the Dodgers and Mets in 2023. That came with a personal-worst 12.8% walk percentage, though, and he allowed nearly five earned runs per nine that season.
The Cubs have an inexperienced bullpen with a handful of roster spots up for grabs. Nate Pearson, Porter Hodge, Eli Morgan, Tyson Miller and Keegan Thompson probably have Opening Day jobs secured. Chicago tendered a contract to Julian Merryweather, who is out of options. That gives him the inside track on a middle relief job if he’s healthy. That’d still leave two spots available. The Cubs will surely make additional moves to deepen the relief group over the winter, but it’s a solid landing spot for Bickford as he tries to pitch his way back to the big leagues.
Enjoy Chicago
More like Enjoy Iowa.
This guys has 9 lives. It’s amazing he keeps getting picked up.
Good luck with Bic Philford.
It’s funny ’cause he sucks
Bullpen complete.
Luckily Phil can fall back on his fry cook job if this doesn’t work out as his family owns a chain of pancake houses similar to IHOP.
Dumpster diving jed, when is he going to learn
…and bringing up the rear as usual, here comes the Sux fan- a million miles from an original thought.
A solid guy to be the 10th reliever. Stash him in Iowa and select him when needed.
Except he has no options so…….. Yeah not happening. You can only do that once. Not to mention he probably has opt outs in the deal if he’s not added by a certain date. So not really feasible. But thanks for playing. Every team takes fliers on bums. It’s nothing new. And certainly not to Jed. And if he’s above their 15th best reliever Then Hoyer really needs to be fired.
Go look at the Yankees reliever list for 2024 on B-R. Bickford was probably in the 13-15 range and they used 25 relievers.
He’s going to start the season in Iowa and get called up when someone gets hurt and give them 10 IP in blowouts, and then vaya con dios. You have someone better for that role?
I’d rather have people that can actually get people out but hey a lot of people call me crazy.