👋 Good morning!

You know who’s an underrated winner with the end of Comcast Xfinity’s dispute with CHSN?

Bar patrons.

I’d forgotten how nice it was to enjoy sitting inside a local watering hole with the Cubs and White Sox on television. Throw in last night’s thrilling fourth game of the Stanley Cup Final, and it made for a truly enjoyable night.

Gone are the days of calling places to see if they’d have the Blackhawks game on TV because the antenna strength wasn’t strong enough.

It’s still a bit annoying that the network caved to the cable provider’s demands to greatly reduce their over-the-air availability. But hey, at least the number of establishments carrying the games should be restored to normal.

– Patrick Norton

⚾️ Summertime Sweepstakes ⚾️

Rate & CHGO are giving away a pair of tickets to the Rate Club for Cubs-Sox at Rate Field on July 26th.

All you have to do to enter? Download the Rate app and enter at:

🔗 https://allchgo.com/rate/

No purchase necessary—just good vibes & great seats.

Do the Cubs have the guy?

Ryan Pressly picked up his fifth save of the season last night, just his first since April 13th. The Cubs have tried a few guys in the traditional closer’s role this season, but is what they have enough for a potential postseason run?

Let’s look at the options:

RYAN PRESSLY: Pressly, 36, is the most experienced of the bunch, with 112 career saves before he was dealt to the Cubs from the Astros this past offseason. But his stuff isn’t quite what it once was, either, and there’s been a steady decline in his reliability in the past couple of seasons.

Pressly’s game log is an interesting one to get lost in for a while. In 28 appearances this season, he’s struck out just 16 batters and retired every batter he’s faced only seven times.

But he’s also only allowed an earned run in three appearances. His ERA exploded to 7.62 after allowing eight runs without recording an out in an outing last month, but he hasn’t allowed a run since, lowering his ERA back down to 3.81. Without that blemish from May 6th, he’d have a 1.04 ERA.
DANIEL PALENCIA: Palencia, 25, has been a tremendous revelation in the Cubs’ bullpen in 2025. After struggling mightily with command issues in past seasons, Palencia finally seems to have the mental ability to attack the zone consistently with his 100-mph fastball.

Palencia lucked into the closer role when Pressly was removed from it in May, and Pressly’s replacement, Porter Hodge, landed on the injured list shortly afterward. Thrust into the role on May 19, Palencia actually blew his first save opportunity before shutting down opponents in the next five.

He’s also a much stronger strikeout threat than Pressly, K’ing 25 batters in 24 innings this year. But Palencia was seemingly reverted to the traditional set-up man eighth inning role in last night’s 3-2 win.
PORTER HODGE: Hodge, 24, combines a bit of Palencia’s power with Pressly’s finesse and has become an invaluable asset to the Cubs’ bullpen. However, his 2025 numbers haven’t been as strong as his rookie campaign last year, partly due to an increased walk rate.

Last season, Hodge was nearly unhittable with a 1.88 ERA and 2.75 FIP. This year, Hodge sports a 5.12 ERA and 4.18 FIP, allowing more earned runs in 21 appearances (11) than all of last season (9).

Not to mention, Hodge hasn’t pitched since May 17th due to an unfortunate oblique strain, considering his stuff looked a bit like last year’s just before landing on the 15-day IL.

The options are interesting. And I think it’s enough to work with instead of prioritizing the position ahead of the trade deadline.

But if you have three closing-capable relievers, do you have any? I’m sure Craig Counsell would love it if Palencia emerged as somebody as reliable as Josh Hader was while the Cubs’ skipper was in Milwaukee.

And closer-by-committee could lead to some heartburn-inducing moments when the stakes get higher, but like the Cubs’ ragtag starting rotation without its two top pieces currently available, it’s doing okay…for now.

At the end of the day, not for nothing, the last time a playoff-bound Cubs team acquired a top-of-the-line closer midseason, he blew the save in Game 7 of the World Series. It worked out okay, though.

GO DEEPER: Brendan Miller & Corey Freedman recap last night’s win and dive into the bullpen, including Ryan Pressly’s odd year.

Paul Skenes @ Wrigley 👀

Join Cody Delmendo, Luke Stuckmeyer and CHGO Cubs Diehards at Murphy’s Bleachers at 10 a.m. today before heading into Wrigley Field to watch Cade Horton and the Cubs take on Paul Skenes and the Pittsburgh Pirates!

THE SUMMER OF MIGUEL VARGAS: Is a player’s fourth year in the major leagues too early for a career renaissance? Well, Miguel Vargas didn’t get the memo.

The White Sox’s corner infielder kept his renaissance rolling last night in the series finale against the Astros, despite Houston winning the rubber match of the three-game set. Vargas, 25, clubbed two doubles, a triple, and added a walk and a stolen base to bump his slash line up to .242/.322/.433.

It was the 16th multi-hit outing for Vargas in 66 games in 2025, bringing his season bWAR up to 1.6. Before this year, his career bWAR sat at -1.0, with just 14 multi-hit performances in 171 games.

INTO THE RAFTERS: The Sky announced on Wednesday, following Allie Quigley’s official retirement announcement, that the organization would retire Quigley’s No. 14 in a ceremony on July 9 before tip-off against the Dallas Stars. It will be the first jersey retirement in franchise history.