Steve Cishek pitched Tuesday night.
And Monday night.
And Saturday, and Friday, and three of the last four days before the All-Star Break.
There aren’t easily available stats on this, but even when he doesn’t pitch, it often feels he’s perpetually warming up.
But is he really?
Because this is such a common, mildly amusing, and somewhat concerning narrative, it deserved to be checked against the numbers, and it turns out it’s very accurate:
Steve Cishek is pitching all the time.
Since Cishek came to Chicago prior to last season, he’s tied for the MLB lead in appearances at 124. Only Andrew Chafin of the Diamondbacks can claim as many outings as Cishek, and he’s thrown only 74% as many innings as the Cubs’ sidearmer.
Cishek isn’t an outlier: there are ten other pitchers within ten outings of him and Chafin, five of whom have thrown more innings than Cishek. And it’s been toned down this year, as he’s tied for 13th-23rd place (it’s a big tie) in appearances. He didn’t even lead the league last year, though he was two outings away.
Cishek might not be an outlier, but he’s certainly near the top in usage among relievers.
Which makes his effectiveness all the more impressive.
Cishek’s 2.40 ERA since joining the Cubs is identical to Josh Hader’s over the same timeframe. He doesn’t strike out nearly as many batters, and his FIP (3.50) is much higher than Hader’s (2.51), leaving open the possibility that his above-average results on balls in play aren’t sustainable. But still, he’s been one of the best pitchers in baseball despite getting hardly any rest.
The concern exists that Cishek might wear down and get injured at this high a rate of usage, and that concern is fair. But while he spent some time on what was then named the disabled list in three straight seasons from 2015-2017, he still made 49 or more appearances in each of those years. And in the three seasons preceding that stretch, he averaged 68 outings.
I don’t know (and from what I’ve seen, I don’t think anyone knows with confidence) whether there’s something with Cishek’s funky delivery that makes him any different from his peers when it comes to injury-susceptibility, but it’s certainly possible. It’s also possible his body is more durable than the average, or that something with his self-care enhances his ability to recover, or that he’s just been lucky.
Whatever the case, I’ll now knock on wood a few dozen times, and wait for Cishek to start warming again, which—since the Cubs don’t play for another 28 hours—will probably happen in about 29 hours and 30 minutes.
