Ian Happ has been the glue in the outfield for years in the Chicago Cubs‘ defense, but the left fielder might find a job as a pitching coach when his playing career is over. Happ recently gave helpful advice to veteran closer Ryan Pressly amid his struggles in the Cubs’ bullpen.
Chicago briefly demoted Pressly from his role as a closer for a few games after he surrendered nine runs to the San Francisco Giants in the 11th inning of a 14-5 loss on May 6. Since that humbling outing, Pressly has given up just one run (and no earned runs) in 14 appearances.
Pressly, 36, now has a 3.81 ERA in 2025, and successfully closed out Thursday night’s 3-2 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates in front of 40,174 fans at Wrigley Field.
Ian Happ gave Ryan Pressly a scouting report
Per Andy Martinez of Marquee Sports Network, Pressly said Happ issued him a serious correction via a faux scouting report.
“When I get a report on me, I can kind of see what I’ve been doing and what my tendencies were,” Pressly said, “and I think we got a little happy with one pitch in particular and now (we’ve) just got to mix everything in.”
Martinez hinted that Happ suggested Pressly stop using the curveball as much, a pitch he used eight times in the nine-run inning against the Giants. He threw one curveball during his six total pitches against the Pirates on Thursday night.
Motivation for the Chicago Cubs’ veteran
Pressly said he used his performance against the Giants as a motivator to be a better pitcher for the remainder of the year.
“You got to be humble in this game or you’re going to get humbled,” Pressly said. “I got humbled in front of the Cubbie faithful and all of MLB. So (you’ve) just got to take that and try to be a little bit (humble) and just build off of it and try to, I guess, build a good routine so that you can build off it and be better.”
The Cubs will play Game 2 of their four-game series against the Pirates on Friday at 1:20 p.m. CST.
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