The Chicago Cubs have moved on from Aaron Bummer, releasing the left-handed reliever after a brief run in the organization that never really got off the ground.
Bummer had signed a minor league deal with the Cubs at the end of May, but the fit never looked especially promising. He opened the 2026 season with the Atlanta Braves, then was cut loose after a rough stretch in 19 games. Chicago took a shot anyway, sending him to Arizona to work on things before assigning him to Triple-A Iowa in July.
That stop didn’t last long. Bummer made just four appearances for the Iowa Cubs, and he allowed at least one run in three of them.
His final outing there came on July 12, when he gave up a home run in one inning of work. The Cubs released him on July 16.
The 32-year-old didn’t stay on the market for long. He has since agreed to a minor league deal with the Kansas City Royals and reported to Omaha, according to Jon Heyman.
Bummer’s path has been a sharp drop from the years when he was one of the more effective left-handed relievers in the game. From 2019-22 with the White Sox, he appeared in 161 games and posted a 2.59 ERA with a 27.2 K% and a 71.1% ground ball rate. That run earned him a five-year, $16 million contract with options for 2025 and 2026.
After the 2023 season, Chicago sent him to Atlanta in a trade that brought back Michael Soroka, Jared Shuster, Nicky Lopez, Braden Shewmake, and Riley Gowens. Bummer bounced back in 2024 with a 3.58 ERA in 55.1 innings, and the Braves later reworked his deal so it guaranteed $2.5 million in 2025 and $9.5 million in 2026.
The results in 2025 were still usable, but the warning signs were there. He finished with a 3.81 ERA and a strikeout rate of 21.7%, and the underlying numbers and velocity kept sliding.
Aaron Bummer’s Decline
2024: 3.58 ERA, 2.23 FIP, 2.52 xFIP, 28.3 K%, 7.4 BB%, 59.7 GB%, 93.7mph average fastball velocity
2025: 3.81 ERA, 3.52 FIP, 3.68 xFIP, 21.7 K%, 7.2 BB%, 53.9 GB%, 91.6mph average fastball velocity
2026: 7.63 ERA, 8.62 FIP, 5.55 xFIP, 16.9 K%, 13.0 BB%, 46.2 GB%, 90.3mph average fastball velocity
Bummer’s 2026 line with Atlanta was ugly: a 7.63 ERA in 15.1 innings before the Braves finally had enough. The Cubs gave him a look, but the results didn’t improve, and his latest release adds him to a growing list of veterans Chicago has cut loose in July, including Liam Hendriks, Kyle Wright, and Drew Pomeranz.
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