The 2025 Chicago Cubs season opened with high expectations for hard-throwing right-hander Ben Brown. He cracked the team's Opening Day starting rotation, but was ineffective almost immediately, pitching to a 6.04 ERA in 25 1/3 innings of work in the first month.
Things didn't ever really get better from there. He posted a sub-5.00 ERA in only one month, and was nowhere remotely close to manager Craig Counsell's circle of trust by the time the regular season wrapped up. He pitched two scoreless innings in the NLDS, but it's hard to call his 2025 performance anything but a disappointment.