The Chicago Cubs are bringing back one of their most reliable relievers. The Cubs have a deal in place with veteran left-hander Caleb Thielbar, pending a physical, a source confirmed to the Tribune. Thielbar, who turns 39 in January, is coming off one of his best big-league seasons following an unde rwhelming performance with Minnesota in 2024. Thielbar posted a 2.64 ERA and 147 ERA+ in 67 appearances for the Cubs. Manager Craig Counsell now has two lefty options out of the bullpen with Thielbar and Hoby Milner. The Cubs officially announced Milner’s signing Tuesday and added veteran right-handed reliever Phil Maton last month. The organization entered the offseason knowing they would need to sign multiple relievers, as nearly all their high-leverage arms were becoming free agents aside from right-hander Daniel Palencia. “It’s the right place to take a volume approach, to use our pitching guys, to believe in guys and guys that can get better, and try to develop those guys as well as possible,” president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said of the bullpen last week at the annual MLB winter meetings. “And so I’d rather spend our resources on probably areas of less volatility, honestly, but at the same time, bullpens are really important. Related Articles What we heard from Chicago Cubs at winter meetings, including bullpen focus and praise for Moisés Ballesteros Chicago Cubs add Hoby Milner to revamped bullpen on a 1-year, $3.75 million deal Chicago Cubs could have 8 players in the World Baseball Classic. Here’s a look at where each stands. Caleb Williams, Connor Bedard, Derrick Rose and more: The 11 No. 1 draft picks made by Chicago’s pro teams Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell is ‘very optimistic’ Shota Imanaga will get back to his old form “Every team has to make their own decisions on how they allocate resources. … Other teams may choose to put really big blocks (of payroll) in the bullpen, and that’s up to them. I think how I see it is, rather use those big chunks of money to go get starting pitching or position players.” The Cubs could have heavily pursued more proven closers who were available in free agency, but clearly feel comfortable diversifying their approach to building a bullpen and finding pitching profiles that project to perform well and give different looks to opposing hitters. The National League, though, will feature some tough ninth-inning arms. The Los Angeles Dodgers opted to sign Edwin Díaz after his former team, the New York Mets, inked Devin Williams, while the Atlanta Braves landed two of the top relievers, Raisel Iglesias and Robert Suárez. The Cubs have become an appealing destination for pitchers looking for bounce-back seasons or to unlock something and take their repertoire to another level. “There’s a lot of teams that do a really good job with pitching, but I feel like we have really good pitching guys, and I think we’ve done a good job bringing the best out of guys, so that certainly is noticed,” Hoyer said. “We’re not alone in that. But when we do Zooms and we talk to different pitchers, I think they’re aware of that.” ...read more read less