December 16th: The Cubs have officially announced Milner’s signing.
December 11th: The Cubs and left-hander Hoby Milner are reportedly in agreement on a one-year deal. The MVP Sports Group will make $3.75MM plus incentives. The Cubs have multiple 40-man vacancies and don’t need to make a corresponding move.
Milner, 35 in January, is an unusual but effective southpaw. He doesn’t throw very hard, averaging in the high 80s with his fastball and sinker. But he nonetheless manages to get outs with an unorthodox sidewinding delivery, with his arsenal also featuring a slider and a changeup.
Over the past four seasons, Milner has thrown at least 64 innings in each campaign. Put together, he has logged 264 innings in that span, allowing 3.55 earned runs per nine. His 22.6% strikeout rate in that time was close to average while his 5.8% walk rate and 51.1% ground ball rate were both notably better than par. His Statcast data in that span has also been better than league average, with Milner having an 87 mile per hour exit velocity, 5.4% barrel rate and 35.5% hard hit rate. He earned one save and 49 holds over that four-year stretch.
That span did feature a fluky ERA spike, as Milner posted a 4.73 ERA with the Brewers in 2024. The Brewers could have retained him for 2025 via arbitration, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting him for a $2.7MM salary, but they non-tendered him instead. The Rangers scooped him up with a deal for $2.5MM plus incentives and benefitted from a bounceback, as Milner posted a 3.84 ERA in 2025.
The Cubs have now given him a slight raise in the hopes that he can keep things rolling in 2026. Cubs manager Craig Counsell is plenty familiar with Milner’s abilities, as he was the skipper in Milwaukee when Milner established himself as a viable big league reliever.
Chicago had a decent relief corps in 2025. Their relievers had a collective ERA of 3.78, putting them just outside the top ten of MLB clubs. But at season’s end, Brad Keller, Caleb Thielbar, Drew Pomeranz, Taylor Rogers, Michael Soroka, Aaron Civale and Ryan Brasier all became free agents. The Cubs flipped Andrew Kittredge to the Orioles in the early days of the offseason, getting cash considerations back in return.
The Cubs generally prefer to build their bullpens on the cheap. From 2020 until last month, they didn’t sign any free agent relievers to multi-year deals, part of the reason why they just lost so many arms to free agency. They broke that pattern recently by signing Phil Maton to a two-year deal, but Milner is another low-cost, short-term commitment to the relief group.
The southpaw contingent of the bullpen was particularly lacking before this move, with Thielbar, Pomeranz and Rogers all departing for the open market. That left Luke Little as the top option, despite having just 35 1/3 career innings with an 18.2% walk rate. Milner is now the most experienced lefty in the group, though the Cubs could make further additions before the offseason is through.
This move brings the Cubs to a $184MM payroll and $199MM competitive balance tax figure, according to RosterResource. It’s unclear where the Cubs want the payroll to end up. The base threshold of the CBT is $244MM next year, meaning the Cubs are $45MM away. They went narrowly over the tax line in 2024 but ducked back below in 2025. They are still on the hunt for a big rotation upgrade. They’ve been connected to free agent Alex Bregman. They will presumably be looking for more relievers. How it all plays out will depend on how much dry powder the Cubs have.
Michael Cerami of Bleacher Nation was first on the deal. Brittany Ghiroli of The Athletic noted it would be for one year. Mark Feinsand of MLB.com had the guarantee. Photo courtesy of Jerome Miron, Benny Sieu, Imagn Images
Milner throws from an unorthodox arm angle on the left side. Would love to see them sign Tyler Rogers as he also throws from an unorthodox angle, but the right side. Deception in the bullpen is key.
Blue Jays and Rangers. You guys are cooked even more!
Milner is a submariner and I saw him a lot when he pitched against the Astros, I would actually say he’s just a mid reliever or so. 7th inning guy at best and an occasional 8th inning pitcher when you are desperate. The 3.75 million doesn’t tell you that he’s going to be a high leverage reliever throughout the year.
Me personally, he came in a lot of high leverage scenarios, especially with lefties on deck. I think he came in a bit too many, I don’t think he’s going to be used as the team’s setup man, rather a pitcher that solves lefty batter problems.
So he sucks, but those teams are cooked.
He may suck but during his Brewer phase of career he pitched in almost every meaningful game and did his job 90 percent of the time. Isn’t that what teams want? I know a fan will say anything less than 100% is failure but those same people are the ones at work who complain how the boss runs the company.
This man is fishing for interaction by the looks of how he comments. Rage bait will do
Milner was great in the first half, but he ran out of gas in the second.
It’s frustrating to see all these teams sign players and waiting for your team to invest in a big free agent instead of some minor leaguers.
Why would this fringe signing bother the Blue Jays or Rangers?
You should be sad he didn’t sign in the AL West …as well as the Astros have hit him over time.
Who’s got better stuff: Milner or Andrew Saalfrank?
OK. But can we still bring back Thielbar?
Sounds like they just did.
Loved his new threads card in MLB The Show 25. Nasty, especially against lefties.
Wow. This should’ve been a minor league deal.
It’s not sexy, but maybe Cubs can course-correct him? Thielbar and Keller need to be brought back.
The Cubs operate so oddly: Why not just sign the guys who were good for you last season–Thielbar, Pomeranz, Keller–instead of analogous mid-tier additions? It’s as though part of the rules is, you need a new bullpen every year.
Simple, the guys that leave end up with multi year deals somewhere. Cubs don’t give out multi year deals to relievers.
I doubt either Pomeranz or Thielbar will get a multi-year deal, or more money than the Cubs are giving Milner or Maton.
Thielbar should only be getting a 1-2 year deal based solely on the fact he’s 38. Yes, he had a late-career renaissance, but how many years does he realistically have left? He seemed like a shoe-in to bring back.
shoo-in, you mean
Because Pomeranz and Keller were not good 2 years ago.Last year they were.relievers have years they are good,years they are bad.
So, if a reliever has a good year, that’s something to hold against him, because it means he’ll probably have a bad one the next season? Gawd, baseball has gotten weird–or maybe it’s just some fans who have.
Cubs are cheap. Those guys cost money now.
Well said. Wrigley Field is just a bar with a baseball game being played.
Cheap. Buy your $15 beers.
That’s why The Cubs encourage cup snakes at $18 a cup
The Cubs had a top 10 payroll last year.
Barely above replacement level for his career, below replacement level for the last couple seasons, and he’ll be 35 in 2026. (That’s the B-R take. FanGraphs is a little more bullish.)
I really doubt that the Cubs are expecting much from him and the deal seems like a slight overpay. But it’s only for one year and the Cubs have to look like they’re doing something.
My favorite MLB the show reliever.
Find Hober Mallow.
Or his brother, Marsh
someone needs to put together an all-star team of players whose names look like typos
1B Willson Contreras
After whiffing on former elite Brewers FA’s Josh Hader and Devin Williams, Jed Hoyer finally gets Craig Counsell a familiar arm for the back of his bullpen. 🙁
Good get. Reds should have made an effort to get this guy or some competent lefty.
Maton is OK, Milner is borderline OK. It’s obvious the Cubs are going cheap on the bullpen again.
No team should spend 20M on a bullpen unless it’s a closer.
There’s a difference between spending 20M, 10M (Kittridge) and the spare change you find in your couch (Cubs’ modus operandi).
david dahl retired btw yall :’(
Wasn’t exactly what I had in mind. Brings a different look and change of pace to the hard throwers the Cubs have. It might work IDK. I guess Jed thought he was better than Thielbar and Pomeranz.
Mike-As long as we keep signing question marks and paying them less than what a prime free agent would make I’m all in!
Surprise surprise they get another ex Brewer. He is ok but might as well sign Pommeranz, Cuter, Quintana Fredde, Ben Sheets, and any other former Brewer too. Tellez next ?
Not a terrible signing. Cubs get a decent reliever and it didn’t cost too much
They are all the way now after this huge signing and Milner only 35 and only a bit higher than a million. Hoyer can do better than that- he should be ashamed.
Wow Jed this is your big move all week. Stop wasting our time
Has MLB released the CBT tax numbers for 2025 yet?
244 million. It’s been set for years in the CBA.
Cubs should be named bottom of the barrel cubs. Sad!
Your comments are bottom of the barrel.
What’s a Hoby Miner ohhhh
Cubs should be renamed the lightening in the bottle cubbies because this team will end up full of them particularly in the pitching department. So inexcusable!!!
It’s been a couple year now that the cubbies have been predicted as one of the more active teams when it came to making moves. Yet, here they are again with doing virtually nothing. Maybe they have overvalued their players against the rest of the league.
Start printing those playoff tickets Jed, maybe for 2036 smh
If I were Luke little, I’d demand a trade or just plain release because they’re obviously not showing any confidence on this young lefty instead going for a couple old timers on Milner and thielbar.
Now that the Cubs reached a deal with Theilbar, I feel better about the Milner signing. This probably means that Pomeranz is gone for good, however.
Signed with the Angels today
Somewhere is South Fla or Cali Gaybe Kapler got a big smile on his face. Phillies fans know exactly what I mean lol. Enjoy!