SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Ben Brown initially struggled handling the disappointment from his last spring training start.
The Chicago Cubs right-hander was upset after allowing three runs and three walks and hitting two batters in 2 2/3 innings March 6 against the San Diego Padres. An offseason of reflection had Brown turning inward. He wanted to continue focusing on holding himself accountable. So when the spring outing kept wearing on him, Brown reminded himself of a proverb: If you faint in the sight of adversity, your strength is small.
Over the last week, Brown kept reminding himself of that line. The command issues in his previous Cactus League start didn’t repeat Saturday against the Colorado Rockies. An efficient Brown allowed one run and two hits in four innings and didn’t walk a batter while striking out six on 51 pitches.
“I believe that I’m capable of doing these things, I’m capable of bouncing back from these things,” Brown said afterward. “Bad times are going to come but just got to kind of ride with it. And same thing for today, like, you can take a good outing and be super pessimistic about it, and just say, ‘Oh, it was just a fluke. It was just in spring training’ or ‘maybe they weren’t ready for it’ or whatever the case may be. You can have a million excuses why you had a good day. But just, hey, I had a good day today, I worked hard for that success, and I’m just going to enjoy it and move on to the next one.”
Brown, 26, knows he needs more than his dominant fastball-curveball combination to be a consistent big-league starter. Few starters can successfully rely solely on a two-pitch mix. Brown has tried incorporating a changeup, its usage representing just 5% of his pitches thrown last season, and it again was an offseason focal point. But the addition of a sinker could be a game-changer for Brown. Since adopting it in the offseason, Brown has been working it into spring games. He threw 11 sinkers Saturday, generating two called strikes and four swinging strikes with the pitch.
Brown believes having a sinker in his arsenal allows him to utilize a completely different game plan against right-handed hitters, which he described as “super encouraging.” Throwing it in games is the best way to gauge his development of the pitch. Working on it in the pitching lab or during bullpens can provide only so much feedback without seeing how hitters handle it.
“Today was an awesome indicator of that,” Brown said. “You have to remember that you put in the work. You did everything. If you knew you were going to take the test and you had all the answers, you wouldn’t really be too nervous. So it’s almost like you go in knowing that you prepared, knowing that you did the right thing. That’s something I had a hard time doing the past and just going out there and executing.
“I was able to slow the game down where I was able to really work on things. There was opportunities where, in the past, there might have been an overthrow or an uncompetitive miss — those turned into strikeouts. And I took chances today, and I was able to do that and not feel like I had to make the perfect pitch.”
The 2025 season did not play out like Brown had envisioned. He posted a 5.92 ERA in 25 games (15 starts) for the Cubs and was optioned to Triple A in mid-September. Brown was included on the Cubs’ National League Division Series roster and appeared in one game, throwing two scoreless inning in their Game 1 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers. Digesting the disappointment of how he performed over the course of the season has helped lead Brown to a healthy mental space this spring, something his teammates and coaches have noticed.
“It just was real accountability, I wasn’t pointing fingers at the end of a bad year, and I think it’s really easy to do that within professional baseball,” Brown told the Tribune. “There’s so many outside things that can go wrong, and then you forget that you’re in control of things.
Cubs pitcher Ben Brown delivers against the Pirates on Aug. 17, 2025, at Wrigley Field. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)
“And I lost sight of that for a really long time I feel like in my career, where I was so worried about outside (stimuli) and stuff, and I didn’t want to be a nobody anymore — even worse than a nobody, I didn’t want to be someone that’s a detriment to the team. And I wanted to fix that so I wanted accountability for that and put my best foot forward.”
It’s not yet clear whether Brown will be part of the opening-day roster. Pitching coach Tommy Hottovy has indicated the Cubs would feel comfortable having Brown as a multi-inning option in the short term because of starters still building up during the first two weeks of the season. The Cubs still fully believe in Brown’s ability to be a big-league starter, especially if his sinker becomes a viable third pitch.
Brown isn’t worrying about his big-league roster status to open the year. He puts that in the category of things out of his control. Instead, Brown wants to be prepared to seize whatever big-league opportunity he gets from the Cubs, regardless of the timing.
“I feel like I’m in a much better spot than I was last year,” Brown said. “The resilience and the ability to pitch in different situations is something that I need to add to my repertoire and to be confident in. And that doesn’t mean I can’t stop dreaming of what my career could be like, but for right now, what can my day look like? That’s the focus. … Wherever I am right now is where I have to be and be my best because I didn’t really do a good job of that last year.
“Whatever situation I’m in right now, I know that there will be starts available at some point. I just have to be prepared to take the ball and do a good job when that happens and that’s what I’ll be working toward.”