This story was excerpted from Jordan Bastian's Cubs Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
WASHINGTON -- Jacob Webb had relied on a sweeper as his primary breaking pitch in each of the past three seasons. He developed it during his lone year with the Angels and carried on with the offering, even as the feel for the pitch and its predictability began to slowly erode on the reliever.
When Webb joined the Cubs last winter, he wanted to find something different. There were discussions and work done in Spring Training to bring back a curveball the righty used in college, through the Minors and briefly in the big leagues. And then when April went awry for Webb, he told Chicago’s pitching group that it was time to finally ditch the sweeper.
“It was really me, ultimately, being like, ‘This isn’t going to work,’” Webb said. “They’re very good at what they do with pitch grips, pitch design, all that stuff. So they were like, ‘Let’s transition to the curveball and try to work on a bullet slider.’ And it happened quick -- real quick.”
As the Cubs head into the final six weeks of the regular season with a place in the postseason looking realistic, Webb has since developed into a trusted high-leverage arm for manager Craig Counsell. While injuries have impacted Chicago’s bullpen all season long, Webb has provided a steady hand and continued to earn more chances to lock down wins.
Look no further than Tuesday night, when Webb handled the final out of the eighth and then went through the top of the Nationals’ order in the ninth. The righty got CJ Abrams to ground out to end the game, picking up a four-out save to seal an 8-6 win for the North Siders.
And the version of Webb that Cubs fans are seeing now is different from the pitcher who signed a one-year, $1.5 million deal over the offseason.
“That’s what’s so great about pitching,” Counsell said. “You don’t have to stop, like, ‘This is who I am and I can’t change and I can’t improve.’ Pitchers have, really, that big ability to add something, to do something a little better, find a new grip, find a new way to use their stuff to mix it together.
“And Webby’s been a good pitcher in this league, and has found some things that have helped him add a little bit to keep the hitter guessing.”
Webb’s bread-and-butter pitches are still his four-seam fastball and changeup, but even those have improved this year. The fastball is checking in at 94.2 mph on average this season -- up from 93.4 mph in 2025. His changeup has resulted in a 43.8% whiff rate, which is a jump from 35.4% last season, too.
Ask Webb, and it has been the changes with his breaking pitches that have helped his main two options play up.
“It’s helped tremendously,” Webb said. “The changeup’s been so good this year. I pretty much can throw it whenever I want. But, being able to save it and not showing them it early in an at-bat, it definitely helps my confidence going out there and it just makes it way harder on them as a hitter. Now they have to pick between three pitches -- four pitches, technically, right now.”
Webb threw his sweeper in the season’s first month, but the results against righties overall were rough. He allowed a .429/.458/.667 slash line to right-handed batters and had a 5.06 ERA overall before the calendar flipped to May. Dating back to May 1, Webb has held righties to a .175/.250/.281 showing and had a 1.70 ERA overall in that span, entering Wednesday.
During May, Webb dropped the sweeper he had used since ‘23 and brought back a curveball. He had not used the curve in the previous three years, because the movement profile was too similar to the sweeper. It was during May that the Cubs’ pitching group tested out a few slider grips with Webb, who found one he liked and ran with as June neared.
“I threw it for maybe a week and a half in catch play,” Webb said. “Tried it on the mound twice, and then took it straight into a game. And it was nails from the get-go.”
The results have been undeniable.
Through 53 appearances this year, the 32-year-old Webb has turned in a 2.38 ERA with 60 strikeouts and 17 walks in 53 innings. He had a 3.22 ERA in 169 games across ‘23-25. His strikeout rate is up from last year (27.4% in ‘26 vs. 21.7% in ‘25) and his ground-ball rate has spiked as well (42.6% in ‘26 vs. 31.9% in ‘25).
“Having the trust from the manager is amazing, and obviously the team, too,” Webb said. “I feel like I was always kind of built for this role and never really had the bigger opportunities to kind of fill that role. For me, it’s just been however I can help the team, whatever that may be. But, it’s definitely awesome being able to step up. Obviously, our team has kind of needed it from an injury standpoint, to be able to kind of help guide us in that bullpen.”