By Patrick Mooney, Ken Rosenthal and Sahadev Sharma
The Chicago Cubs are finalizing a one-year, $9 million contract with Hector Neris, a league source confirmed Saturday, adding to their bullpen an experienced reliever who helped the Houston Astros win the 2022 World Series.
The bullpen has been a focus for Jed Hoyer’s baseball operations group since the Cubs collapsed last September and missed the playoffs by one game. Among several breakdowns, the Cubs did not make it to October with a relatively fresh group of trusted relievers. Whether that falls more on the front office, the coaching staff or player development, David Ross ultimately absorbed the blame.
Firing Ross and hiring Craig Counsell will give the Cubs a skilled tactician in the dugout. Counsell also had some exceptionally talented relievers on his side while managing the Milwaukee Brewers. Neris, 34, represents exactly what the Cubs wanted to add this winter — a reliever with know-how in big games and the late innings.
Neris also won’t be working on a long-term deal, which fits Hoyer’s bullpen-building philosophy. The contract includes a team option for 2025 that converts to a player option if Neris appears in 60 games this season. ESPN first reported the agreement.
By including an option based on appearances, Hoyer gives the team some security in case Neris gets injured or is so ineffective that he can’t be used as often as needed. Hoyer has been reluctant to hand out multi-year deals to relievers in past winters, but with relief help a big area of need for the team, he admitted that he’d likely have to go out of his comfort zone to lure a veteran arm to join this bullpen.
But in a market that saw older veterans like Aroldis Chapman and David Robertson top $10 million in their one-year deals, it seemed like getting someone like Neris — who was believed to be seeking multiple years — on terms Hoyer would find palatable was a long shot. Hoyer’s patience has proven to pay off.
Despite seeing his fastball velocity drop to 93 mph, Neris was still as strong as ever last season. He appeared in 71 games with the Astros, posting a 1.71 ERA with 77 strikeouts in 68-plus innings. His splitter, his second-most used pitch after his four-seamer, was one of the stronger offerings in baseball. Of relievers who pitched most of the 2023 season, only six had a better whiff rate on the splitter than Neris’ 42.2 percent.
Neris has been remarkably durable and reliable of late. He is one of only two relievers (along with Cleveland Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase) to make at least 70 appearances in each of the last three seasons. Over that time, Neris also struck out 30 percent of the batters he faced and posted a strong 3.03 ERA. He notched 84 of his 89 career saves with the Philadelphia Phillies, the organization that originally signed him out of the Dominican Republic.
The Cubs have had recent success by signing veteran relievers on relatively bargain deals and having them lead a group of inexperienced and/or younger talent. That method didn’t work out as well in 2023, and Neris fills that veteran void the Cubs desperately needed last summer. A point of frustration among some was the lack of a true vocal leader among the group — Michael Fulmer struggled early, while Brad Boxberger was injured for much of the year — who could show young talent like Daniel Palencia and Luke Little how to prepare and thrive over a 162-game season.
Between signing Neris and trading for Yency Almonte, the Cubs are methodically collecting more options for Counsell. The bullpen group already includes Adbert Alzolay, who emerged as a dominant closer when healthy last season, and Julian Merryweather and Mark Leiter Jr. Drew Smlyly will likely end up as a veteran lefty in the group with optionable players like Palencia, Little and Jose Cuas fighting for the final few spots along with the pitchers who don’t make the rotation.
In trying to take the next step into the playoffs, the Cubs are planning to rely on a flexible pitching staff, the young talent coming up through their farm system and a manager known for pushing the right in-game buttons.
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(Top photo of Hector Neris: Alex Bierens de Haan / MLB Photos via Getty Images)
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