MESA, Ariz. — Left-hander Brandon Hughes had only been out of the Cubs organization for a season. But a lot happened in that time.
“Totally way more experienced,” he said when asked to compare the pitcher he is now to who he was in his last Cubs stint. “I’ve seen a bunch of highs and I’ve seen the lows. I’m trying to keep that roller coaster more even-keel now. Let’s be a little more consistent.”
Hughes knows exactly what he hopes the Cubs see in him this spring.
“I want to show that I’ve got that ‘it’ factor again,” he said.
Hughes, who signed a minor-league deal this offseason to return to the Cubs, is one of only two left-handed relievers still in major-league camp after cuts on Friday. And the Cubs have to decide before Tuesday whether they’ll bring him to Japan, either by adding him to the roster or just making him a member of the travel squad.
Regardless of the outcome, Hughes provides a valuable left-handed relief option in the organization for a team lacking depth in that area.
“I’m just so happy for him, one, to get to see him feeling and looking more like himself,” pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said. “Hughesy’s such an upbeat guy, he’s a good athlete, he runs around, does stuff, and you could always tell when things weren’t going well and he didn’t feel good, because it just takes away from his personality and who he is.”
The Cubs saw that upbeat version of Hughes in his rookie year, when he developed into a trusted high-leverage reliever for the last two months of the 2022 season. But Hughes wasn’t himself the last time he made a regular-season appearance for the Cubs.
By the time he underwent surgery in late June of 2023, he’d had his left knee drained of fluid six or seven times in less than five months, he estimated.
The good news was, he needed a less invasive operation than originally expected. Instead of a distal femoral osteotomy — which involves cutting and repositioning the femur — he had a surgical cleanup.
“There were three bone spurs and a debris rock,” Hughes said. “So that’s what was making my knee upset and [causing] all the swelling. My body was saying, ‘We need some help here.’”
Hughes finished the season on the injured list but made eight rehab appearances with Triple-A Iowa. The Cubs non-tendered him that November. And Hughes signed a non-roster invitee deal with the Diamondbacks.
For the first time in his professional career, Hughes was getting feedback from a team other than the Cubs, who drafted him as an outfielder in 2017.
“It was cool getting brand new eyes on me, brand new thoughts, different cues,” he said.
Hughes had an up and down season with Arizona, bouncing between Triple-A to the majors. He suspects now that he wasn’t “fully ready” when the Diamondbacks first called him up in late April.
“But getting those reps and then going back down to Triple-A and working, and working, it was all all for the better,” he said.
The Diamondbacks non-tendered Hughes this past offseason, and he found his way back to the Cubs.
“It’s exciting,” catcher Miguel Amaya said. “He’s a nice dude — also a competitor. When he is up there, he’s competing every single pitch.”
Over the offseason, Hughes said he focused on his velocity, which was slow to come around last season. He added a changeup and honed his slider.
In three outings this spring, Hughes has limited opponents to one hit, tossing three scoreless innings. He was scheduled to pitch Friday against the White Sox before the game was rained out.
“I’m not on the roster right now, but I’ll be knocking,” he said.
Camp cuts
The Cubs announced Friday that they had reduced the spring training roster to 42 players.
They optioned two relievers, right-hander Ethan Roberts and lefty Luke Little, to Triple-A Iowa. And they returned nine non-roster invitees to minor-league camp: pitchers Phil Bickford, Chris Flexen, Ben Heller, Brooks Kriske and Trevor Richards; infielders Jonathon Long and James Triantos, and outfielders Greg Allen and Christian Franklin.
