The Era (not ERA) of the disposable pitcher

The DFA of Bryse Wilson got me thinking. He had a very short tenure with the Cubs, and now has to decide whether he wants to go to Iowa, or try his luck with a different franchise.

When I started watching baseball, it seems like there were a lot fewer roster moves, and definitely not as many pitchers being used for very short stints in the majors. Every once in a while, an injury or ineffectiveness would trigger a call-up from the minors. But waiver-wire pickups during the season seemed almost non-existent.

So I went back to the year I really started following baseball, 1983, I did a count of the number of pitchers, who threw 5 innings or less during the course of a season. Then I checked in 1993, 2003, 2013 and 2023.

There is some noise in this chart, specifically position players pitching. But even if they were removed, there are still many more pitchers getting very small short windows in the majors.

Unsurprisingly, this chart has an almost identical curve to the percentage of innings thrown by relievers

This season, the Cubs have had several “disposable” pitchers:

• Luke Little – 1 IP
• Yacksel Rios – 1.2 IP
• Ty Blach – 3 IP
• Charlie Barnes – 3 IP
• Jayden Murray – 3 IP
• Vince Velasquez – 3.1 IP
• Corbin Martin – 5.0 IP

And this list does not even include Bryse Wilson, as he managed to put in 7.2 innings of work over his 2 games with the Cubs.

Last season was not nearly as crazy, as only 3 non-position players had fewer than 5 innings. But the increased number of injuries in 2026 had made the last spot or two in the bullpen a revolving door.

Some other reasons, beyond just the increased usage of relief pitchers for this trend that I can think of:

• More pitcher injuries – which goas along with the increased usage
• Easier communication and travel to bring up players on very short notice
• Improved technology to allow players to go through the waiver process
• Willingness by teams to bear the costs of having a plyer in the majors for a short period of time

I’m not sure whether any or all of these items are true. And there certainly might be other factors.

I do wonder how some of these players feel about being used like this. Getting to the majors, even briefly, has to improve their paychecks. But it has to be rough on these players and their families to bounce back and forth between the majors and minors, sometimes across multiple franchises.

Perhaps there will be changes to the next CBA that will limit the way pitchers are used and then discarded. But for now, it is just a tool teams are using to find whoever they can to pitch some innings and get some outs.