The Cubs’ acquisition of Justin Wilson gives an already healthy bullpen a nice shot in the arm. Striking out over 12 batters per game, Wilson joins a relief corps with an NL second-best 9.91 K/9. You can expect a whiff from this bullpen every third pitch, literally.
Despite an impressive 2.68 ERA, the 29-year-old’s xFIP is 3.47 and his grounder rate of 38.4 percent is far below the ~45 percent league average. Neither is necessarily an issue, though. Willson’s Statcast FIP — which calculates the exact probability of a fly ball going for a homer — of 3.