Daniel

Palencia

He walked one and struck out two while not allowing a hit. Palencia came in to pitch in a tie game, and he kept it knotted up with the Cubs scoring in the bottom half to give Palencia his first win of the season. The 26-year-old has yet to give up a run in 2026, and has a firm grasp on the closing position for the Cubbies.

Palencia was called upon to protect a 1-0 lead in this one and he didn’t disappoint. He needed just 13 pitches (10 strikes) to Kyle Manzardo, Bo Naylor and Daniel Schneemann in order, including a strikeout of Schneemann to end the ballgame. Palencia has yet to allow a run through his first three innings on the season.

Palencia was named Chicago’s closer roughly a month ago by skipper Craig Counsell and he’s looked the part this spring, putting together a dominant run as Venezuela’s stopper in the World Baseball Classic before finishing Cactus League play with four shutout frames. The hard-throwing 26-year-old has the talent to blossom into an upper-echelon fantasy closer this season and looks like a borderline top-10 option already.

It’s notable because Counsell has normally given a boilerplate answer about having “an outs-getter” or something along those lines. Palencia looks like a good bet for 30 or more saves if he can stay healthy this season, and the fact that there’s no committee that we know of entering Spring Training is great news for his fantasy stock.

Keller will have plenty of suitors and a healthy market this offseason after blossoming into a dominant high-leverage arm for the Cubs this past season, compiling a sparkling 2.07 ERA and 75/22 K/BB ratio across 69 2/3 innings over 68 appearances. The 30-year-old impending free agent, who made some mechanical tweaks this past season to unlock some additional velocity, will have plenty of fantasy appeal in drafts next spring, especially if he ends up back in Chicago to compete with Daniel Palencia for save chances or winds up elsewhere with a clear path to a ninth-inning role.

It was a remarkable bounce-back performance from Boyd, who managed to work into the fifth inning of a do-or-die affair for the Cubs after allowing just two runs in the opening contest of the best-of-five series. The 34-year-old veteran southpaw struck out six and allowed just two hits and three walks in this one as he and four relievers — Daniel Palencia, Drew Pomeranz, Brad Keller and Caleb Thielbar — combined on a three-hit shutout at Wrigley Field to keep Chicago’s postseason hopes alive.

Palencia entered the contest in the fifth inning after starter Matthew Boyd and proceeded to mow down the heart of San Diego’s lineup, sitting 99-101 mph with his fastball and dotting the corners with his slider in just his third game back from the injured list. The hard-throwing 25-year-old righty got the final out of the fifth to prevent any further damage against Boyd before coming back out to spin a flawless sixth. His return provides a significant lift to Chicago’s high-leverage mix.

Palencia’s return provides a massive lift to Chicago’s high-leverage mix heading into the postseason after missing just over two weeks with a shoulder strain. It’s fair to wonder if veteran Brad Keller will continue to get save opportunities since he’s done a phenomenal job filling in during Palencia’s absence.

Brad Keller has filled in admirably as Chicago’s primary stopper for the past two weeks with Palencia on the shelf recovering from a shoulder strain. The 25-year-old righty figures to make it back to the Cubs’ late-inning mix before the regular season wraps up next weekend, but he won’t make much of an impact for fantasy managers with only a handful of games left on the slate.

There’s no word yet on the severity of the strain, but it could sideline Palencia for the rest of the regular season. He suffered the injury during Sunday’s meltdown against the Nationals, when he was tagged for five runs in a blown save. His absence leaves Chicago’s ninth-inning role unsettled, though Andrew Kittredge is one of the favorites to step in given his prior closing experience. The other logical candidate is veteran Brad Keller, who has made the leap from journeyman swingman to dominant high-leverage arm this season.