Chicago Cubs Nico Hoerner in action during a baseball game against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Cubs’ Ryan Pressly made offseason adjustment he hopes will pay off with new team
Pressly is one of the favorites to pitch in the ninth inning for the Cubs.
MESA, Ariz. — Cubs reliever Ryan Pressly could tell he was out of whack last season. He and the Astros identified the issue early; it was just a matter of finding enough time to address it.
‘‘As a starter, you get four days to work on something,’’ Pressly said in a conversation with the Sun-Times. ‘‘But for a reliever, it’s just like, ‘All right, let’s not try to do too much because you might be in the game tonight.’ And, to [Astros pitching coaches Joshua Miller’s and Bill Murphy’s] credit, they were trying as hard as they could. It was just probably something that we needed to do in the offseason.’’
Pressly still managed a 3.49 ERA, 25 holds and four saves as the Astros’ setup man. And by the time the Cubs traded for Pressly in late January, he was confident he mostly had cleaned up his mechanics.
