The Chicago Cubs made a minor move on the free agent market by bringing in veteran RHP Phil Bickford to a minor league deal as reported by Jon Heyman.
Phil Bickford is signing a minor league deal with the Chicago Cubs per Jon Heyman. Bickford, 29, spent most of the 2024 season down in the minor leagues and had only 8 appearances (8.1 innings) with the Yankees pitching to an 8.64 ERA. Bickford will add some much-needed pitching depth in the bullpen for the Cubs come 2025.
With a very inexperienced bullpen the Cubs hope that the signing of a player like Bickford will provide some much-needed veteran leadership as well as experience to some of the younger arms like Nate Pearson if he was to make the team out of spring training.
Bickford’s best season came in 2021 when he was a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers, but also made 1 appearance for the Brewers before being traded, in which he pitched in 57 games (51.1 innings) to which he had a 2.81 ERA and 59 strikeouts. At Triple-A Bickford was able to find success going 4-4 in 39 games (50.1 innings) with a 3.40 ERA, 6 holds, 5 saves, and 62 strikeouts.
Bickford will most likely receive and invite to spring training where he has a chance to win a spot in the bullpen where there are few spots up for grabs. Right now, the locks to have jobs in the bullpen out of spring training to my estimation are recently acquired RHP’s Eli Morgan, Porter Hodge, Keegan Thompson, and Tyson Miller. Bickford will look to compete for the final spots available with RHP Nate Pearson who could potentially be moved to the starting rotation, and RHP Julian Merryweather who the Cubs just tendered a contract to but had a 6.60 ERA in 15 games (15 innings) for the Cubs in 2024.
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