The Great 2017-18 Baseball Free Agent Logjam has broken for the Cubs, in a small way at least:
Brian Duensing had an excellent year for the Cubs in 2017, posting a 2.74 ERA, 1.219 WHIP and 1.4 bWAR in 68 appearances. His walk rate of 2.6 per nine innings was the best of any reliever on the Cubs staff last year.
Along with most observers, I thought the Cubs would thank Duensing for his fine year and let him walk. He’ll turn 35 next month and I suspected they might want to go with someone younger, and also with Duensing’s good year he would likely cash in from some other team willing to pay for past performance.