39-year-old Caleb Thielbar defied Father Time to be effective for the Cubs in 2025 and is returning, hoping for more of the same. At some point he’s bound to run out of gas, but maybe not yet.
He was 3-4, 2.64 last year, but hasn’t had that kind of result in the spring so far. Even so, he’s probably headed to Chicago and will occupy his short/middle relief slot once again.
Thielbar brings some funk, and has a long track record amassed during eight years as a Twin and one as a Cub. After two years of
passable results in 2013-4, he spent most of 2015 and all of 2016-2019 in the Twins’ minor-league system until his curveball got him back to The Show. He spent four good years in Minnesota, had a subpar 2024, and packed his bags.
In nine years, he has a 5.6 bWAR (5.5 fWAR). He’s probably not going to hurt you, and he’ll put up 50 or 60 innings’ worth of relief, say projections. At this point, he throws fastball, slider, curve, eschewing the sinker and knuckle-curve he deployed earlier in his career. That curve is a weapon, and he throws it at different speeds to further foil hitters. At top end, it’s almost 80 mph, and he unleashes it as a quasi-eephus pitch periodically. His fastball tops out at about 92 mph.
His WHIP was 0.88 last year. The Cubs can use more of that.
