The Chicago Cubs announced today that they have signed RHP Kohl Stewart to a major league contract for the 2021 season.
The former fourth overall pick in the 2013 MLB Draft, Stewart chose to opt out of the 2020 season and was granted free agency by the Baltimore Orioles at the conclusion of the season.
Stewart, 26, has made 17 appearances (six starts) between 2018-19 for the Minnesota Twins. In those appearances he has posted a 4.79 ERA in 62 innings, he was very hittable as hitters collected 63 hits (including 6 home runs) while he struck out just 34 batters.
The sample size is limited, but he has shown much more success as a reliever with a 3.48 ERA across 33.2 innings pitched along with striking out 20, although that does come with a concerning 1.67 K-BB ratio.
He's not going to blow away batters, but his 92 MPH fastball would actually make him one of the harder throwers in the Cubs rotation especially compared to Kyle Hendricks (87 MPH), Zach Davies (88 MPH), and Alec Mills (90 MPH).
He throws the fastball about 55 percent of the time along with a slider that he uses about 35 percent of the time, he also throws a curveball and change-up, but they are both thrown less than ten percent of the time to not exactly inspiring results.
It seems like his future is destined for the bullpen with his lack of an effective third pitch, but the Cubs are incredibly starved for pitching and he is young enough that there is still the possibility that there is some untapped potential that can be unlocked.
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