{"id":90541,"date":"2025-01-02T10:25:29","date_gmt":"2025-01-02T15:25:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=90541"},"modified":"2025-01-02T10:26:18","modified_gmt":"2025-01-02T15:26:18","slug":"chicago-cubs-sign-caleb-thielbar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/01\/02\/chicago-cubs-sign-caleb-thielbar\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubs Sign Caleb Thielbar to a One Year Deal to Strengthen Bullpen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After spending eight seasons with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/10\/31\/twins-rookie-pitchers-2025\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Minnesota Twins<\/a>, the Cubs have announced that they signed left-handed reliever <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/t\/thielca01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-27_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Caleb Thielbar<\/a> to a one-year deal. The Cubs are getting a pitcher who specializes in left-handed batters and has consistently stranded runners throughout his career. At 37 years old, Thielbar brings a wealth of experience and a proven track record to his new team.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The Chicago Cubs today agreed to terms with LHP Caleb Thielbar on a one-year major league contract. The 40-man roster stands at 40 players.<\/p>\n<p>Welcome to Chicago, Caleb! <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/EtBIQGHu0W\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/EtBIQGHu0W<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Cubs\/status\/1874199898691952778?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 31, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Cubs Sign Caleb Thielbar<\/h2>\n<p>Thielbar&#8217;s&#8217; MLB career as a reliever began in 2013 at the age of 26. His first year was nothing short of impressive. Over 46 innings, Thielbar posted a stellar 1.76 ERA, 0.826 WHIP, and 233 ERA+, making him one of the most effective relievers in the league. In his second season, Thielbar continued to be a reliable arm out of the bullpen. Appearing in 54 games, his ERA and WHIP slightly rose to 3.40 and 1.406. He proved resilient in high-leverage situations while maintaining a strong 116 ERA+.<\/p>\n<p>Recently, Thielbar has maintained his value as a veteran reliever for <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/11\/12\/twins-hire-new-gm\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Minnesota<\/a>. Despite battling injuries that limited him in 2023, Thielbar still delivered a strong 3.23 ERA across 30.2 innings. Thielbar&#8217;s command was the season&#8217;s highlight, with an impressive 0.946 WHIP, striking out 36 batters while only walking six. While 2023 reaffirmed Thielbar&#8217;s reliability after injury, 2024 presented its <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/10\/15\/twins-strategies-from-postseason-teams\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">challenges<\/a>. Appearing in 59 games, the second most during a season in his career, his ERA climbed to 5.32 while giving up the most walks in his career with 24. Despite these struggles, Thielbar struck out 53 batters with a strong 10.1 K\/9 innings rate.<\/p>\n<h2>Bullpen Impact<\/h2>\n<p>Thielbar brings a wealth of knowledge and experience, making him a valuable addition to the Cubs. Throughout his career, lefties have struggled against him, often posting low averages and OPS against him. This makes Thielbar an ideal candidate for high-leverage matchups against left-handed batters. Also, with a decade of experience, Thielbar brings veteran leadership to the bullpen. He can help younger pitchers with their approach and how to fine-tune their mechanics. At 37, Thielbar&#8217;s challenges of 2024 may reflect the toll of a long career. Despite these challenges, his recent years have demonstrated resilience and durability, making him a strong signing for the Cubs.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Matt Blewett-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After spending eight seasons with the Minnesota Twins, the Cubs have announced that they signed left-handed reliever Caleb Thielbar to a one-year deal. The Cubs are getting a pitcher who specializes in left-handed batters and has consistently stranded runners throughout his career. At 37 years old, Thielbar brings a wealth of experience and a proven [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5352,"featured_media":91352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1071,24],"tags":[28435],"class_list":["post-90541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","category-cubs","tag-caleb-thielbar"],"modified_by":"Chris Drosehn","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90541"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93214,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90541\/revisions\/93214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}