Pedro Strop to Carl Edwards Jr. to Brandon Morrow has been a comfortable way to close out games. Steve Cishek and Brian Duensing make it even easier to breathe, too. As a unit the Cubs bullpen has teamed up for a 2.56 ERA and 3.44 FIP, worth 1.1 fWAR in isolated stats but much more important in reality.
The Cubs bullpen ranks No. 4 and No. 7 in ERA and FIP, respectively. The only other NL team better than the Cubs’ clean-up crew is Milwaukee’s pen, though that hasn’t mattered lately because the Brewers tend not to have late leads against the Cubs.