One of the more notable losses the Cubs will face this offseason is the loss of lefty reliever Justin Wilson. Although his control was awful at time, he managed to post a 3.46 ERA in 54.2 innings for the Cubs, including holding lefties to a .241/.319/.345 slash.
Like every season their is a glut of free agent relievers on the market, and one of those relievers is Zach Duke. On the outset his numbers aren't that impressive. He posted a 4.15 ERA in 52 innings split between the Twins and Mariners. But a deeper look at the numbers suggest he pitched much better than his numbers indicated.
His xFIP of 3.74 and BABIP against of .394 suggest that he may have been a victim of both bad luck and poor defense behind him. He also had some pretty severe splits as righties slashed .311/.403/.370 against him compared to just .220/.283/.319 against lefties. His K-BB% of 12.5% was fairly solid and he posted the highest ground ball percentage of his career at 59.4 percent.
Duke turns 36 in April so age is not on his side, but he has generally been fairly reliable since he made the full conversion to a reliever in 2012. He wouldn't be the most glamorous addition to the Cubs team, but he's a guy I think the Cubs should definitely be looking at as a cheaper option to add to their bullpen.
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