Today we look at the Cubs’ right-handed sometime reliever.
Gavin Ernest Hollowell was born in Somerset, NJ, 11/04/1997. He’s a 6’7”, 215 pounder, a sixth-round pick by the Rockies in the 2019 Amateur Draft, a graduate of St. John’s.
Hollowell had some coffee in Colorado in 2022-23, appearing in 32 games during that span, throwing 40.2 innings, and garnering a single save and three holds (all in 2023, when he threw the majority of his innings). He’s gotten into eight games as a Cub and his numbers are not impressive, Overall he sports a 5.79 ERA, having given up 33 runs in 51.1 innings, allowing 49 hits and 29 walks. He does strike out a man per inning, and his stuff seems decent, but he doesn’t have it all together at this point and is probably looking at Iowa with a possibility of an injury recall. He rode the Des Moines Express in August and September, in 2025.
2025 was meh. Hollowell threw 10 K’s in 9.1 IP but allowed nine hits (one home run) and walked seven men. He throws a four-seam fastball that tops off @94.4 mph, an 85 mph sweeper, and a 95 mph sinker, and also has a cutter and changeup that he rarely uses, preferring the sweeper to be his breaking pitch.
That straight change might be handy, though. He’s a 2500+ spin rate guy. The sinker seems to be his out pitch, or at least he gets the bulk of his strikeouts using it. IIRC it darts down and can be hard to harness. HIs fastball has some lateral movement and he needs to spot it carefully or it drifts into the middle of the zone.
Maybe the Pitch Lab can fix him, and maybe keep his arm angle the same for two consecutive years, just for something to build on (Baseball Savant, linked above, shows him changing that angle every year).
I don’t know. Anyway, I don’t know if it would pay to get too familiar with him. If he doesn’t step up the out-getting. he’s another camp arm. His name sounds like it should be appended to a law firm. It’s very impressive and official.