With Pressly scouting report, Cubs’ Happ shows sense of team chemistry

Ian Happ accessed “Ivy,” the Chicago Cubs’ information-sharing platform, and prepared as if Ryan Pressly would be the opponent’s starting pitcher that night. Around this time, Happ was stuck on the injured list with a strained oblique muscle, and Pressly had just been demoted to a lesser role in the bullpen. The team, however, believed the exercise could be beneficial.

Pressly approached Happ, asking the veteran outfielder to put together a Pressly scouting report and share the game plan that he would use if he faced the right-handed reliever. “It took a lot to be able to ask that question,” Happ said. “For a guy that’s had a ton of success in the league for so long, to be vulnerable enough to say, ‘Hey, I need to figure something out.’”

Pressly, though, didn’t have much equity at Wrigley Field, where he got rocked during a historically bad performance against the San Francisco Giants. Opta Stats put his 11th inning on May 6 in stark terms: Since earned runs became an official stat in both leagues in 1913, Pressly became Major League Baseball’s first reliever to allow eight-plus earned runs in a game, not get an out and take the loss.

This could not have been what Pressly envisioned when he waived his no-trade clause with the Houston Astros last winter, approving the deal that transferred him to Chicago. Writing off the balance of Pressly’s $14 million salary at that point wasn’t realistic, but it was fair to wonder how much the 36-year-old reliever had left in the tank. Early the next morning, Pressly arrived at Wrigley Field to work with Cubs pitching coach Tommy Hottovy, trying to find a solution.

“You got to be humble in this game, or you’re going to get humbled,” Pressly said. “And I got humbled in front of the Cubbie faithful, and all of MLB, so you just got to take that with a little bit of humility.”

With a gruff exterior and gray in his beard, the plainspoken Pressly carries himself in a way that reminds Cubs personnel of Jon Lester. No doubt, Lester possessed certain natural talents and physical attributes, but he willed himself into the Hall of Fame conversation through guts and determination. While Lester’s career is remembered for the highs, it was also marked by several low points, the moments when he looked lost and had to adapt and evolve.

Hottovy used Lester’s struggles as a lesson for Pressly. Happ, as a rookie with the defending World Series champions in 2017, gravitated toward Lester, trying to soak up as much perspective as possible.

“Everybody goes through it,” Happ said. “It doesn’t matter what side of the baseball you’re on, everybody goes through stretches where the game feels really tough. The best guys in the world are the ones that minimize that. Everybody grinds at a different level.”

Over the years, hitters such as Happ and Anthony Rizzo approached Mike Borzello, the former Cubs coach who was heavily involved in game-planning strategy, catching instruction and the organization’s pitching infrastructure. Those Cubs hitters asked Borzello for breakdowns on how Chicago’s pitchers would try to get them out.

Beyond that institutional knowledge, the current Cubs also feel a strong sense of camaraderie in the clubhouse and the dugout. This is a first-place team that appreciates the give-and-take and the details inside the game, which made it easier for Pressly to ask for help.

“We have a lot of guys that like hanging out,” Happ said. “There are times when you’re on teams with guys who play baseball and like to get away from it. And we have a lot of guys who really just love sitting around talking baseball.”

Happ, who’s in his 11th year in the Cubs organization, went through his charting process and showed his findings to Pressly on the computer.

“I gave what I would be looking for, and what pitches I would want to hit,” Happ said. “It’s going back multiple years into, ‘All right, here’s how it was in 2024, here’s how it was in ’23, versus what it is now. Are there any percentage changes? How have guys handled the pitch historically?’

“You’re looking at the pitches that guys have hit and trying to get a feel for: Are they hitting it hard, or is it a lot of luck? You know, bad BABIP stuff versus the pitches that guys are actually hitting hard and squaring up.

“Pitchers always have a perception of how the pitch plays, but they’re never in the box, so they never really get to have that conversation with the hitter on what it might look like, or what they might be looking for. Honestly, throughout their daily work and our daily work, there’s not a ton of interaction. You’re not standing in on their bullpens and saying, ‘Hey, maybe this, maybe that.’”

This was, of course, a group effort and not simply the result of Happ’s presentation. But after that blowup, Pressly did not allow an earned run in 16 consecutive appearances. In changing the pitch mix, Pressly decreased the use of his slider while relying more on his four-seam fastball and continuing to incorporate his sinker and curveball.

Pressly, meanwhile, had his right knee drained at least once — Cubs manager Craig Counsell confirmed that procedure in late April — to alleviate some discomfort and feel more athletic on the mound. Pressly’s experience can’t be discounted, either, as the closer for Houston’s 2022 World Series team. However, as the Cubs go through a midseason lull, how this turnaround happened illustrates the team’s problem-solving capabilities and tight-knit culture.

“Ryan deserves a ton of credit here for how he’s bounced back,” Counsell said. “It’s just a lesson, man, to all of us as to what it means to be a professional and how this game is going to knock you down. Are you going to stay down, or are you going to get back up? He chose to get back up and battle his tail off and get better.”

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