Continuing my series on pending Cubs free agents, let’s take a look at righthanded reliever Steve Cishek.
At first glance, the numbers look pretty good: 70 appearances, 64 innings, 2.95 ERA, 1.203 WHIP, 1.8 bWAR (but only 0.2 fWAR). His FIP and xFIP were up significantly this year over last.
On the other hand, Cishek spent some time on the injured list this season with left hip inflammation. On the other other hand, he was pretty effective after he returned from the injury: 16 appearances, 13u2154 innings, 0.66 ERA. But... in those 13u2154 innings, he issued 11 walks, and his walk rate for the season was 4.