The Cubs are going to welcome right-hander Jameson Taillon back from the injured list today, which will bump fellow righty Javier Assad to the bullpen, per Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic. Sharma also lists Michael Soroka as someone who could help the bullpen down the stretch, suggesting he’ll likely end up in a relief role when he comes off the injured list.
Assad, 28, was a solid member of the Chicago rotation last year. He made 29 starts, allowing 3.73 earned runs per nine innings. His 19.4% strikeout rate and 9.9% walk rate were a bit worse than league average but he had a decent 43.6% ground ball rate. He may have benefitted from a high strand rate of 80.3% but his 4.64 FIP and 4.72 SIERA still pointed to him being capable of passable work as a big league starter.
But this year has been challenging. Oblique issues kept him on the injured list until August. He has since made five starts with a 4.62 ERA. His walk rate and grounder rate have improved in that small sample but he has only struck out 13.2% of opponents.
It’s not a drastic drop-off overall but the Cubs don’t feel Assad is one of their five best rotation options. When Taillon returns, he will slot in alongside Matthew Boyd, Shota Imanaga, Cade Horton and Colin Rea. Boyd and Horton are both having really strong seasons. Imanaga isn’t pitching as well as last year but has still managed to post a 3.21 ERA. Rea and Taillon are solid back-end options with ERAs of 4.20 and 4.15 respectively.
Assad will therefore end up in the bullpen, likely in long relief. The Cubs already have guys like Aaron Civale and Ben Brown capable of soaking up multiple innings from the bullpen but Assad will give them one more.
As for Soroka, his potential bullpen move is logical and should be more impactful. He had a lot of success in a relief role last year. He started 2024 in the White Sox’ rotation but ended up getting bumped to the bullpen. He finished out the year with 36 relief innings with a 2.75 ERA and 39% strikeout rate. His 13% walk rate was certainly high but that kind of strikeout stuff made him an intriguing leverage relief option this winter.
He came into 2025 still with the hope of being a starter. He signed a one-year, $9MM deal with the Nationals and joined that club’s rotation. He had a decent 4.87 ERA, 25.4% strikeout rate and 7% walk rate with Washington, though notable splits later in games. This year, he has held opponents to a .193/.250/.329 line when going through the order for the first time. That line jumps to .218/.302/.395 the second time through and then there’s a big spike to .319/.467/.574 for the first time through.
The Cubs acquired him at the deadline even though his velocity had been trending down throughout July. They nonetheless hoped to get a few starts out of him. But he made just one, lasting two innings, before a shoulder strain put him on the shelf. In his recent bullpen sessions, his velo has been back up to the mid-90s. He’s set to go on a rehab assignment this week and could rejoin the big league club soon.
Given last year’s bullpen success, his third-time-through-the-order penalty and recent health concern, a bullpen move makes lot of sense. If he can posts some results similar to last year’s, he could jump into a leverage role. That would help the Cubs going into the stretch run, as they recently lost Daniel Palencia and Ryan Brasier to the IL due to a shoulder strain and groin strain respectively.
Photo courtesy of Christopher Hanewinckel, Imagn Images
Probably until Taillon injures something new tonight.
Assad’s stuff is unimpressive, but he seems good at keeping the Cubs in the game.
1 thing I notice trending up every year is teams becoming more reliant on peripherals in their statistical analysis. I look at the comments for players like Dylan Cease who isn’t having a bad year except in ERA, BABIP and strand rate and they’re extremely bearish. Meanwhile Shota is more on the opposite end of the spectrum and the comments are extremely bullish (though I agree picking up his team option should be a no brainer).
It always takes fans longer to make the same adjustments. When I was younger people would often bring up a pitchers win/loss record but now that’s almost never done.
They drew straws.
Moving someone to the “bullpen” pretty much solves any problem. My wife cheated on me years ago, so I moved her to the bullpen and we’ve been fine ever since.
Might want to rephrase that. If your wife has a play-pen with a “bull”, that may have a different meaning to some.
Im surprised this site hasnt yet written an article on Luis Garcia. Guess they’re waiting on official word
Bring up Jaxon Wiggins.
That’s Assad thing they’re moving Javier to the bullpen.
Not surprising, and not a bad idea, either.
Where you’ve got Civale & Ben Brown as inning eaters for when a game is out of control one way or the other, you’ve got Assad & Soroka more as a relief corps for tired arms still pitching well like Boyd & Rea, both who have exceeded past seasons inning totals. Assad & Soroka behave as starting pitchers #6 and #7 of a five-man rotation.
And, really, it seemed like Counsell was moving in that direction originally, doing more of a split game approach, wanting to have Rea pitch 4 innings, then give 4 innings to another Rea-like pitcher, and then have the bullpen finish off the 8th (if needed) and 9th (for sure).
And Assad filled in that role nicely a few years back, remember? He didn’t have a ton of success as a starter originally or in high-leverage relief, and David Ross slotted Assad as an innings eater, where he excelled and began to really develop as a pitcher, and then slowly began getting the call for higher-leverage situations and eventually more starting opportunities. There’s nothing particularly spectacular about Assad’s stuff, but he can be remarkably effective.
Soroka. Jed’s “big” move at the deadline. Outside of his own extension.
Big Sexy is the solution to ALL of the Cubs problems!
Give him a ring.
Javier is not the only Assad in Wrigleyville