The Chicago Cubs were already trending away from the free-agent relief market this winter, and Evan Phillips’ new deal with the Atlanta Braves may have shut the door completely.
Before Phillips agreed to terms, the signs were pointing in the same direction. Jeff Passan had essentially taken the Cubs out of the running for David Bednar, and earlier reporting indicated that Chicago’s interest in Adrian Morejon was tied to him as a starting pitcher, not a bullpen fix.
That left a narrow lane for a possible bargain. Phillips had drawn some Cubs interest a year ago, and because he made only 31 appearances in 2026, he looked like the kind of low-cost bounce-back target Jed Hoyer might circle for the bullpen. Instead, the market went somewhere else entirely.
Phillips landed a three-year, $35 million contract with the Braves. FanGraphs’ median crowdsource projection had him at one year and $6.8 million, a range that felt much more realistic for a Cubs team expected to direct most of its offseason spending toward starting pitching.
That kind of price tag also fits the way Chicago has usually operated in the bullpen market. The Cubs have not typically been big spenders there, and last winter’s two-year, $14.5 million deal for Phil Maton was seen as them stretching beyond their usual comfort zone.
It did not work out. Neither did the one-year, $6 million commitment to Hunter Harvey, who appeared in just four games for the club.
So while there’s plenty of talk that the Cubs will eventually need to add an established high-leverage reliever, that kind of move does not appear to be coming anytime soon. Not with Hoyer running the front office.
For now, the Cubs already have the core of their bullpen in place, which softens the urgency a bit. If they do make a move, a left-handed reliever would make the most sense. Phillips could have been the exception as a buy-low option, but the Braves were willing to go well beyond the projections.
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