Players · T · Pitcher · 2026 regular season
Caleb Thielbar
- Age
- 39
- B/T
- R/L
- Height
- 6' 0"
- Weight
- 205 lb
- Number
- #24
- Born
- January 31, 1987 in Northfield, MN, United States
- MLB debut
- May 20, 2013
- Drafted
- 2009, round 18
- College
- South Dakota State
- High school
- Randolph
- Salary, 2026
- $4M
- dbWAR
- 5.8 Regular season, 10 season(s)
- IP
- 50.0
- ERA
- 4.86
- FIP
- 4.70
- K/9
- 10.8
- FIP−
- 112 100 = avg
Caleb Thielbar is a relief pitcher for the Chicago Cubs. In 2026 he struck out 60 batters over 50.0 innings across 58 appearances, going 3-4. His ERA of 4.86 was 16.2% higher than the league average of 4.18 — 13th of 16 on his team, and 385th of 539 among MLB pitchers with 20+ innings. Stripping out defence, his 4.70 FIP suggests the ERA was no fluke. He missed bats on 28.9% of swings (15.0% of every pitch he threw), walked 8.5% of the batters he faced and struck out 28.3%. His 0.0 dbWAR is built from that FIP rather than runs allowed, so it credits him for what he controls and not for the defence behind him.
League context
Percentile among qualified pitchers, 2026 regular season.
WAR by season
Pitching Regular season
Standard and advanced, by season. Regular-season games only — postseason games are listed separately below.
| Trend | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | CHC | 58 | 0 | 50.0 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 47 | 27 | 60 | 18 | 4.86 | 4.70 | 1.30 | 10.8 | 3.2 | 116 | 112 | 0.0 | |
| 2025 | CHC | 67 | 0 | 58.0 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 38 | 17 | 56 | 13 | 2.64 | 3.00 | 0.88 | 8.7 | 2.0 | 63 | 72 | 1.1 | |
| 2024 | MIN | 59 | 0 | 47.1 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 50 | 28 | 53 | 24 | 5.32 | 4.10 | 1.56 | 10.1 | 4.6 | 131 | 100 | 0.3 | |
| 2023 | MIN | 36 | 0 | 30.2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 23 | 11 | 36 | 6 | 3.23 | 4.46 | 0.95 | 10.6 | 1.8 | 75 | 103 | 0.1 | |
| 2022 | MIN | 67 | 0 | 59.1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 51 | 23 | 80 | 18 | 3.49 | 2.42 | 1.16 | 12.1 | 2.7 | 88 | 61 | 1.4 | |
| 2021 | MIN | 59 | 0 | 64.0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 55 | 23 | 77 | 20 | 3.23 | 3.47 | 1.17 | 10.8 | 2.8 | 76 | 81 | 1.0 | |
| 2020 | MIN | 17 | 0 | 20.0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 14 | 5 | 22 | 9 | 2.25 | 2.34 | 1.15 | 9.9 | 4.0 | 51 | 53 | 0.6 | |
| 2015 | MIN | 6 | 0 | 5.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 5.40 | 1.13 | 1.00 | 9.0 | 0.0 | 136 | 29 | 0.2 | |
| 2014 | MIN | 54 | 0 | 47.2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 51 | 18 | 35 | 16 | 3.40 | 3.55 | 1.41 | 6.6 | 3.0 | 91 | 95 | 0.4 | |
| 2013 | MIN | 49 | 0 | 46.0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 24 | 9 | 39 | 14 | 1.76 | 3.40 | 0.83 | 7.6 | 2.7 | 46 | 88 | 0.5 |
Separate from the regular season
Postseason Postseason
Wild Card through World Series. These games are counted on their own: none of them are in the regular-season tables, career totals, league context, leaderboards or dbWAR on this page.
Postseason pitching
| Season | Team | Round | G | GS | IP | W | L | SV | H | ER | HR | BB | SO | ERA | WHIP | K/9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 Post | CHC | Postseason total | 5 | 0 | 3.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 0.00 | 1.36 | 12.3 |
| Wild Card | 2 | 0 | 1.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0.00 | 2.25 | 20.3 | ||
| NLDS | 3 | 0 | 2.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0.00 | 0.86 | 7.7 | ||
| 2023 Post | MIN | Postseason total | 4 | 0 | 3.0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 9.00 | 1.67 | 6.0 |
| Wild Card | 2 | 0 | 1.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.60 | 0.0 | ||
| ALDS | 2 | 0 | 1.1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 20.25 | 3.00 | 13.5 | ||
| 2020 Post | MIN | Wild Card | 1 | 0 | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 3.00 | 0.0 |
| Career | Postseason total · 3 Octobers | 10 | 0 | 7.0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 3.86 | 1.57 | 9.0 |
Box-score and rate statistics only. wOBA, wRC+, FIP and dbWAR are measured against a full league season, and a postseason is a few teams playing each other for a month, so they are not computed for October.
Platoon splits
How left- and right-handed hitters fare against him.
| Split | PA | AB | H | HR | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | K% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vs LHB | 92 | 85 | 23 | 5 | 5 | 23 | .271 | .311 | .471 | .335 | 25.0% |
| vs RHB | 119 | 106 | 24 | 6 | 12 | 37 | .226 | .311 | .434 | .322 | 31.1% |
Pitch sequencing
What Caleb Thielbar throws in each count, and what he follows each pitch with. Select any cell for the breakdown.
Select a count to see exactly what Caleb Thielbar throws in it.
Pitch arsenal
What he throws, how hard, how often it misses, and what hitters do with it.
| Four-Seam Fastball | 330 | 93.3 | 2,309 | 53.6% | 23.8% | 79 | .253 | .791 | |
| Curveball | 214 | 76.3 | 2,587 | 49.1% | 29.2% | 51 | .196 | .554 | |
| Slider | 182 | 87.5 | 2,311 | 52.7% | 37.9% | 37 | .324 | .958 | |
| Sweeper | 119 | 80.2 | 2,487 | 49.6% | 30.5% | 24 | .208 | .708 |
Compare Caleb Thielbar with…
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Or read one already written — Caleb Thielbar against:
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- Tyler Zubersimilar 2026 seasons
- Beau Brieskesimilar 2026 seasons
- Steven Cruzsimilar 2026 seasons
- Chase Shugartsimilar 2026 seasons
- Luis Gastelumsimilar 2026 seasons
- Pete Fairbankssimilar 2026 seasons
- Dennis Santanasimilar 2025 seasons
- Steven Okertsimilar 2025 seasons
- Robert Suarezsimilar 2025 seasons
- Shawn Armstrongsimilar 2025 seasons
- Raisel Iglesiassimilar 2025 seasons
Similar players
Nearest 2026 seasons by command, run prevention and role, on rate statistics rather than totals.
wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.