Cubs Lock In Jacob Webb With One-Year Contract Amidst 9.90 ERA
Chicago front office secures relief pitcher before rebuilding bullpen.
By Carlos Rousseau ·
Jacob Webb posted a 9.90 earned run average in his final 11 relief appearances for the Chicago Cubs. Despite that late-season surge in runs allowed, the franchise secured Webb’s future by announcing a new one-year contract on Monday. The deal includes a club option for the 2028 season. This move marks the first step in team president Jed Hoyer’s plan to overhaul the pitching staff.
Webb joined the organization as a free agent last offseason. He became the primary closer after right-handed pitcher Daniel Palencia missed significant time due to injury. During the summer, Webb recorded 24 consecutive scoreless appearances. He finished the campaign with nine saves, leading the team in that category. However, his season-ending 3.36 ERA was higher than his 3.00 mark from the previous year with the Rangers.
The late-season struggles contributed to fan frustration and the team’s loss of home-field advantage in the wild-card round. Hoyer admitted during a press conference last month that the bullpen underperformed expectations. “I did a poor job on the bullpen this year, full stop,” Hoyer stated. He noted that the players acquired in the previous winter did not replicate the production from the 2025 season.
The 2025 relief corps was a major factor in the team’s success. Hoyer said the organization applied the same philosophy to the 2026 group but failed to execute. The entire relief staff finished with a 3.90 earned run average. That figure placed the team in the middle of the sport. Webb represented the successful element of that effort, even as the unit as a whole fell short.
The front office intends to dedicate substantial resources to pitching during the offseason. They view the Webb contract as the initial phase of that strategy. The team also moved to add external depth on Monday by claiming right-handed reliever Eric Orze off waivers from the Minnesota Twins. Orze is a graduate of Glenbard North. He posted a 5.66 earned run average in the current season. In the 2025 season, he recorded a 3.02 earned run average in 33 appearances for the Tampa Bay Rays.
