{"id":352359,"date":"2025-12-16T19:33:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T19:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/352359\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T19:33:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T19:33:10","slug":"sources-cubs-bring-back-left-handed-reliever-caleb-thielbar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/352359\/","title":{"rendered":"Sources: Cubs bring back left-handed reliever Caleb Thielbar"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Jesse RogersDec 17, 2025, 05:59 AM<\/p>\n

Close<\/a>Jesse joined ESPN Chicago in September 2009 and covers MLB for ESPN.com.<\/p>\n

The Chicago Cubs<\/a> are in agreement with left-handed reliever Caleb Thielbar<\/a> on a one-year contract, sources tell ESPN.<\/p>\n

Thielbar, 38, pitched for Chicago last season, compiling a 2.64 ERA in 67 games — becoming one of the team’s key relievers throughout the summer.<\/p>\n

Thielbar joined the Cubs before last year after spending the first nine years of his career with the Minnesota Twins<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His return comes a week after the team signed lefty reliever Hoby Milner<\/a> who pitched for Texas last year. The two are likely to get the bulk of the work in the bullpen from the left side. Lefty Drew Pomeranz<\/a> is a free agent after revitalizing his career with the Cubs last season, and it’s unlikely he will return to Chicago in 2026.<\/p>\n

Thielbar’s success is derived from a nasty curveball which he combines well with his fastball, using nearly the same arm action for both pitches. Lefties hit just .161 off him last season.<\/p>\n

Thielbar has a career 3.26 ERA in 414 games, all out of the pen. The deal is pending a physical.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jesse RogersDec 17, 2025, 05:59 AM CloseJesse joined ESPN Chicago in September 2009 and covers MLB for ESPN.com.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352360,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-352359","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-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352359","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=352359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}