Chicago Cubs reliever Ryan Zeferjahn fell into a unique group this year:
Pitchers with a Chase% in the 20th% or lower and Whiff% in the 80th% or higher: – Ryan Zeferjahn – Erik Miller – Luis Medina – Bryan Abreu All have: An xBA in the 80th% or higher. All also have: A BB% in the 9th% or lower. t.co/mHzmsofHco
How do you wind up with that weird combination of extreme numbers? Best I can figure – and watching Zeferjahn seems to support it – is that you have to have outrageously nasty stuff and almost no ability to consistently tunnel/locate it. Thus, you get tons of whiffs, but almost no chase. As a byproduct, you also don’t give up particularly great contact, but you walk a lot of guys.
It was easy to see why the Cubs aggressively targeted Zeferjahn when they had the chance to acquire him with lots of team control remaining. But there’s a reason he looked only so-so after the trade after looking like one of the best five relievers in the game for the two months before the trade – his command. When basically has it? Stud. When he basically doesn’t? Kinda frustrating. In any case, I’ll be pretty excited to see him for a full season with the Cubs next year.
In case you were wondering about the trade that brought Ryan Zeferjahn to the Cubs at the deadline, here’s your check in on the players the Cubs dealt for him.
Moises Ballesteros’s struggles at the plate preceded the deal and continued after it. In 177 plate appearances with the Angels, Ballesteros hit just .199/.260/.280/52 wRC+, with peripherals that were all even worse than they were with the Cubs (when he saw himself bounced back to Iowa). A spiking strikeout rate, reduced walks, very little power, and a heavy reliance on BABIP without the quality of contact to support it.
There’s obviously a natural hitter there, but I think what we saw in 2026 from Ballesteros is exactly what many feared: a swing-aggressive approach from a guy who’d been so gifted at making line-drive contact for so many years was finally challenged by pitchers with much better stuff who had much better command. Ballesteros was just 22, so there’s plenty of development time yet for him. But his next big step is going to be learning more selectivity at the plate – otherwise, everything gets squeezed, from the BABIP to the strikeout rate to the walk rate, and the overall production plummets quickly, especially for a guy without any speed.
Mason McGwire was having something close to a breakout year with the Cubs before the Angels plucked him, and he made five additional starts at High-A after the trade (4.12 ERA, 3.72 FIP, 25.8% K, 7.9% BB, 19.2 IP). The future is an open question for the 22-year-old righty (who is Rule 5 eligible, by the way), as he still has a long way to go, and this was his first strong year of results (albeit in just 79.0 IP, mostly at Low-A). I did like what I saw this year, though, and a future in the big leagues wouldn’t surprise me. The Cubs need a lot more performances like that in 2027.
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