Cubs Bullpen Philosophy Cost Them Brad Keller, Per Insider

Perhaps the most pleasant surprise of the Chicago Cubs' 2025 season was the campaign that reliever Brad Keller put together.

Chicago signed Keller to a one-year, $1.5 million deal last offseason after a mediocre 2024 where he produced a 0-4 with a 5.44 ERA in just 41.1 innings pitched. Expectations weren't high for how he'd be able to impact the Cubs, but Keller went on to amass a stellar 2.07 ERA and 75 strikeouts in 68 regular-season appearances (69.2 innings pitched). From there, Keller produced a 1.59 ERA in five postseason outings.

Cubs GM Carter Hawkins got clear about his interest in bringing Keller back this offseason, as he said, “We told Brad when we were having our exit meetings after our last game that we had an awesome time with him (and) we’d love to repeat that... That’s definitely a guy that we would love to see in the Cubs uniform again," when speaking to the Chicago Tribune last month.

Ultimately, this didn't work out for Hawkins, as Keller signed a two-year, $22 million contract with the Philadelphia Phillies earlier this month.

Cubs bullpen strategy kept Brad Keller from returning to Chicago

In a December 22 article, The Athletic's Cubs insiders Patrick Mooney and Sahadev Sharma conveyed why the Cubs didn't end up re-signing Keller this winter.

The article noted that it "shouldn't come as a surprise" that the Cubs let Keller and Drew Pomeranz walk in free agency, given their history of not paying relievers top dollar. What's more, the article explained that this tendency is part of the Cubs' philosophy, especially because they've proven the ability to squeeze the most out of relievers that other teams surely believed had little left to offer, which is proven by both Keller and Pomeranz.

Shortly after, it was written that if Keller had been offered "a few million less per year," then he likely would have been back with Chicago. But because the Cubs weren't willing to break this spending philosophy, Keller is now taking his talents to Philadelphia.

As a reliever Brad Keller reinvented his stuff. He added ≈1.4 inches of vertical break on a four seamer that also added about three ticks of velo.
Went from DFA’d by the worst team in baseball last year to a 2.07 ERA in ‘25, earning himself a multi year deal with a contender. pic.twitter.com/m9bbaJVbyL
— Will (@_willmanzi) December 17, 2025

It will be interesting to see how Chicago approaches retooling their bullpen throughout the rest of this offseason. They were reportedly in on Devin Williams (and Williams was reportedly wanting to sign with the Cubs) before Chicago's front office was outbid by the New York Mets.

Because of their reluctance to spend, the Cubs will have to hope that they hit big on under-the-radar relievers like they did this past season.

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