The Cubs have been granted a fourth option year for right-hander Caleb Kilian, per a report from Jordan Bastian of MLB.com.
Typically, players have three option seasons with one used each season during which the player spends at least 20 days on optional assignment in the minor leagues. A player is considered to be on optional assignment when on a club’s 40-man roster but sent to the minor leagues while not on a rehab assignment. Kilian, 28 in June, was first placed on Chicago’s 40-man roster back in 2022 and has been optioned to the minor leagues in each of the 2022-24 campaigns with at least 20 days in the minors each season. Under normal circumstances, that would leave him out of options headed into the 2025 campaign, meaning the Cubs would have to expose Kilian to waivers before attempting to return him to the minor leagues.
Occasionally, however, teams are granted a fourth option year on certain players, typically due to the player missing significant time with injury. MLB.com explains that players with less than five full professional seasons (defined as at least 90 days on a major or minor league active roster) are eligible for a fourth option year. That applies to Kilian, who missed the majority of the 2024 season due to a teres major strain suffered during Spring Training and did not make his season debut until July 2. Kilian also did not pitch in 2020 due to the canceled minor league season and pitched for just one month in 2019 after being drafted by the Giants in June of that year. That leaves Kilian with just three full professional seasons under his belt: 2021, 2022, and 2023.
The news affords the Cubs additional flexibility as they sort through their many bullpen options for the 2025 season. Presently, the club has Porter Hodge, Tyson Miller, Julian Merryweather, Caleb Thielbar, Eli Morgan, Luke Little, Nate Pearson, Keegan Thompson, Rob Zastryzny, Jack Neely, Daniel Palencia, Ethan Roberts, and Gavin Hollowell all on the 40-man roster and in the mix for a role in the Opening Day bullpen before even considering starting pitchers like Ben Brown, Jordan Wicks, Cody Poteet and now Kilian that currently project as part of the Triple-A rotation. A handful of non-roster veterans like Phil Bickford and Brooks Kriske could also be in the mix for a job.
Of that massive group of potential bullpen arms, Thielbar, Miller, Merryweather, Zastryzny, Thompson, and Festa all do not have options remaining. With just eight spots in the Opening Day bullpen, Kilian also being out of options would’ve left just one open space to fill before the club would’ve had to start exposing players from the aforementioned to waivers in order to mix in the club’s many optionable relief arms, including key players like Hodge, Pearson, and Morgan. Injuries and Spring Training roster cuts will surely thin that group out in the months leading up to Opening Day, but the news regarding Kilian’s fourth option year offers the Cubs a bit more breathing room as they look to piece together their pitching corps for 2025.
An inability to option Kilian also would have likely ended whatever hopes the right-hander may have of continuing to be a potential option for the starting rotation; while Kilian has a deep pitch mix and the stamina to start, his control has been sorely lacking. The right-hander has accrued 27 1/3 innings of work in the majors to this point in his career and in that time has struggled to a 9.22 ERA and 5.32 FIP while walking (14.6%) nearly as many batters as he’s struck out (15.3%). With that said, he was effective at the Triple-A level when healthy enough to take the mound last year, with a 3.22 ERA and a 20.3% strikeout rate against a 7.5% walk rate.
Whether he ultimately finds a home in the rotation or the bullpen, a fourth option year has left the door open to Kilian establishing himself more firmly as a viable big league option with additional time to develop in the minors, and allows the Cubs one final year to evaluate the righty before he either has to be kept on the active roster permanently or exposed to waivers during the 2026 campaign.
So he can be mediocre at AAA and awful in the Majors one last time?
SMH, who cares? This doesn’t move the needle one iota, one way or the other. Strictly minor league depth. Break the glass, in case of emergency. Give the guy a break.
The Cubs will reap the benefits of that trade for years especially with Canario, while Kris Bryant has become a sub replacement level player being paid superstar wages.
Giants also paid like 7m of his salary. Think the Cubs did pretty well in that trade.
I wish they were granted an extra year on Kyle Tucker!
The Cubs have only used him at the Major League Level for emergency starts which obviously aren’t his thing. It was a shame because in ST last year he was finally pitching well and looked to be on track when he got hurt. Having an extra option year on him isn’t the worst thing in the world.
Kilian? “Who loves you, and who do you love!”
Killian, ” I’ll be back”. Only in a rerun.