{"id":309036,"date":"2025-11-26T03:00:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T03:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/309036\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T03:00:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T03:00:08","slug":"cubs-interested-in-ryan-helsley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/309036\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubs Interested In Ryan Helsley"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cubs are among the teams with interest in Ryan Helsley<\/a>, reports Patrick Mooney of The Athletic<\/a>. Chicago joins the Tigers as known suitors, but it seems Helsley has heard from half the league. The Athletic\u2019s Katie Woo<\/a> writes that around 15 clubs have been in contact with the righty\u2019s camp to express interest.<\/p>\n

Detroit has pursued Helsley as a starting pitcher. That\u2019s a surprise even in a league that has become more willing to gamble on reliever to starter conversions over the past couple years. Helsley has never started a game in the majors and has not been a full-time starting pitcher since the 2018 season divided between Double-A and Triple-A. It doesn\u2019t seem that Helsley is demanding a rotation role. The 31-year-old told Woo that while he\u2019s open to starting, he\u2019s quite comfortable pitching at the end of games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI missed starting probably the first half of my career, but once I really started closing, I didn\u2019t think about it as much,\u201d Helsley said. \u201cLearning a new pitch would be something I could pick up, obviously, but it\u2019d be a learning curve throughout this first year to figure out how to be a major league starting pitcher.\u201d Helsley said he \u201c(knows what he\u2019s) capable of as a reliever,\u201d even as he expressed confidence that he could be a starter.<\/p>\n

As he pointed out, he\u2019d certainly need to expand his repertoire to start. Helsley has been almost exclusively fastball-slider against hitters of either handedness. He sporadically mixes in a curveball but has never thrown a changeup or cutter with regularity. He\u2019d probably need to add one of those offerings to keep left-handed hitters off balance. Helsley has done a good job against lefties over the course of his career, but that\u2019d be a lot more challenging if needs to navigate a lineup multiple times with lesser stuff than he can throw when he\u2019s only working one inning.<\/p>\n

The quality of the stuff is a big selling point for Helsley, who hit free agency coming off one of the worst stretches of his career. Opposing hitters tattooed him for a 7.20 earned run average while batting .301\/.379\/.554 in 95 plate appearances after a deadline trade from St. Louis to the Mets. The raw stuff was as impressive as ever. Helsley\u2019s fastball sat in the 99-100 MPH range and his upper-80s slider remained an excellent pitch. The heater played well below its velocity, though, as opponents turned it around for four home runs and five doubles in the final two months of the season.<\/p>\n

Helsley said he has identified a pitch-tipping issue with his hand positioning that explains why hitters were so comfortable against him down the stretch. Based on the seemingly robust interest, it appears teams agree he can at least get back to being an All-Star caliber reliever (if not expanding his role). From the start of 2022 through the time of the trade, Helsley pitched to a 2.03 ERA while striking out 32.9% of batters faced in 203 2\/3 innings. He\u2019s seventh in MLB with 103 saves over the past four seasons \u2014 despite not collecting any saves for a Mets team that already had Edwin D\u00edaz<\/a> in the ninth inning.<\/p>\n

Mooney doesn\u2019t specify whether the Cubs\u2019 interest in Helsley is as a starter or in relief. The Cubs need help in both areas, though they\u2019ve already brought in his former St. Louis teammate\u00a0Phil Maton<\/a> on a two-year deal<\/a>. It\u2019d make more sense for Chicago to pursue Helsley as a reliever and aim for an established rotation upgrade. Shota Imanaga<\/a> is back after accepting a qualifying offer. He slots behind\u00a0Cade Horton<\/a> and alongside Matthew Boyd<\/a>,\u00a0Jameson Taillon<\/a> and eventually\u00a0Justin Steele<\/a> in the rotation.\u00a0Colin Rea<\/a> and\u00a0Javier Assad<\/a> are in the mix at the back of the rotation or long relief. The Cubs need another starter, but they should be after someone who can pitch alongside Horton in the upper half of the rotation.<\/p>\n

MLBTR predicted<\/a> Helsley to receive a two-year, $24MM contract. Woo writes that he has discussed multi-year arrangements with more than one team, so it seems he\u2019s on track to at least command two years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cubs are among the teams with interest in Ryan Helsley, reports Patrick Mooney of The Athletic. Chicago…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,16048,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-309036","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-ryan-helsley","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}