Cubs Sign One of Craig Counsell’s Former Starting Pitchers
The Chicago Cubs recently signed 31-year-old Adrian Houser to a minor league deal and fans on the north side will easily remember the right-hander from his days with the Milwaukee Brewers when Craig Counsell was the team’s manager. The two are now reunited in the Cubs organization and while a path back to the big leagues isn’t clear for Houser, it’s never a bad thing to acquire more depth with a solid MLB track record.
Houser started the season with the New York Mets and he was brutal in their starting rotation, posting an 8.16 ERA through his first six starts. The righty was moved to the bullpen and he quickly reverted to being the solid pitcher he’s been throughout his career. Nothing flashy, but Houser recorded a 3.41 ERA in 31.2 innings out of the Mets bullpen from May 26 to July 24.
The Mets DFA’d Houser in July and then he was released. The Cubs officially signed Houser On Aug. 6, and that’s when he made his debut with the Iowa Cubs at Triple-A.
The righty threw 46 pitches, so the plan appears to be to stretch him back to starter innings at Iowa.
Right now the Cubs have five healthy starters, but it’s not like all of them are necessarily locking down their spots. Javier Assad has struggled since returning from the injured list after dealing with a forearm strain and Kyle Hendricks, while better, still doesn’t exude much confidence when he’s on the mound.
The Cubs are 57-60, still way behind in the NL Central and trailing several teams for the third Wild Card spot. However, if they continue to play well (18-12 in their last 30) and find themselves within striking distance of a playoff spot, then they’ll need as much pitching help as they can get. Unfortunately, it just does not seem like Ben Brown is close to coming back, while Jordan Wicks had a setback in July and there has not been much of an update on Cade Horton since he was shut down after being diagnosed with a lat strain a couple months ago.
So yeah, the Cubs need some backup in case of another injury or more regression from their rotation.
During his time with the Brewers, Houser had a 4.00 ERA in 539.1 innings. As a starting pitcher, Houser made 97 starts for Milwaukee and recorded a 4.29 ERA. Not a big strikeout guy, career 18.5 K%, but Houser doesn’t walk many batters and has a ground ball rate of 51.8%.
Houser’s best season in the majors came in 2021, when he made 26 starts and two relief outings. He ended the year with a 3.22 ERA in 142.1 innings. Houser has a career 4.21 ERA in 608.2 innings at the MLB level.