Cubs’ relievers plan to put to work lessons from last season’s fade

John Antonoff/Sun-Times

“I thought I knew [about the rigors of a 162-game season] until I went through it last year,” Julian Merryweather said. “You learn a lot more about it, just the grind of a full season as a reliever.”

PEORIA, Ariz. — Julian Merryweather and some of his Cubs bullpen mates learned the hard way about the rigors of a 162-game season.

“I thought I knew it until I went through it last year,” Merryweather said. “You learn a lot more about it, just the grind of a full season as a reliever.”

The Cubs’ bullpen, which helped carry them to playoff contention through a large chunk of the second half of the 2023 season, faded miserably in September largely due to fatigue and injuries that became magnified during a stretch in which they lost seven of eight games and lost Adbert Alzolay, Mark Leiter Jr.