The Cubs are headed into this offseason prioritizing pitching additions, as president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer told reporters (including Robert Murray of FanSided) yesterday. Hoyer noted that the club already has “a lot of position players,” which will lead them to prioritize giving a boost to both the rotation and bullpen.
It’s not necessarily a shocking update. While star outfielder Kyle Tucker’s free agency leaves a hole in the middle of Chicago’s lineup, it’s long seemed as though he was likely to end up elsewhere upon reaching free agency given the Cubs’ hesitance when it comes to giving out top-of-the-market contracts. Jason Heyward’s $184MM contract signed back during the 2015-2016 offseason remains the largest deal in Cubs history, and Tucker is expected to at least double that figure. While Hoyer told Murray that he’ll “be talking to” Tucker’s representation and was effusive in his praise of the four-time All-Star, a focus on pitching makes more sense given that hesitance to spend at the top of the market and Chicago’s roster outlook.
The Cubs already have everyday players locked into the majority of the spots on their roster. Nico Hoerner and Dansby Swanson are one of the league’s top middle infield duos, Ian Happ is the franchise’s longest-tenured player who just earned his fourth consecutive Gold Glove in left field, while Michael Busch and Pete Crow-Armstrong have cemented themselves as core pieces at first base and in center field. Seiya Suzuki is also sure to be in the lineup on an everyday basis, whether that’s in right field or as the team’s DH. Things seem more or less settled behind the plate as well after a career year for Carson Kelly, with Miguel Amaya and Reese McGuire both in the fold to help back up the veteran as well.
If the Cubs were going to make an addition to the lineup, adding a corner outfielder or DH (wherever Suzuki isn’t playing) or a third baseman would make the most sense. Even then, however, the Cubs have a group of up-and-coming young position players who could get full-season looks next year like Matt Shaw, Owen Caissie, Moises Ballesteros, and Kevin Alcantara. Shaw’s 93 wRC+ in 126 games last year, including a 130 wRC+ after the All-Star break, makes it easy to justify giving him runway at the hot corner next year. While none of Caissie, Ballesteros, or Alcantara has received substantial playing time in the majors yet, between the three of them it’s not unreasonable for Chicago to think they could mostly handle one spot in the lineup.
By contrast, the pitching staff clearly needs work. Shota Imanaga is now a free agent, and with Justin Steele’s return date uncertain coming off Tommy John surgery the only pitchers locked into rotation spots for Opening Day next year are mid-rotation veterans Matthew Boyd and Jameson Taillon as well as Rookie of the Year runner-up Cade Horton. Even among that group, there’s some red flags. Boyd has a lengthy injury history and only just enjoyed his first healthy season since 2019. Horton ended the season on the injured list and missed nearly all of 2024 due to a shoulder strain. Taillon missed around two months due to calf and groin issues. While players like Colin Rea and Javier Assad are viable starters in their own right, they’re best served as swing options.
That leaves room for a rotation addition or two, and there’s plenty of interesting arms who could make an impact for the Cubs this winter. Dylan Cease and Framber Valdez might price themselves out of the Cubs’ comfort zone, but either would still be far less expensive than Tucker. Chicago has done well courting NPB talent in the past, so perhaps right-hander Tatsuya Imai could be a fit. Ranger Suarez, Michael King, Brandon Woodruff, and Zac Gallen are among the many names who the Cubs could look to bring into the fold.
That doesn’t mean a reunion with Imanaga can be ruled out, however. The Cubs extended the southpaw a qualifying offer at the outset of the offseason last week, and he’ll need to decide in the coming days whether or not to accept that one-year, $22.05MM offer. Jon Heyman of the New York Post writes that Imanaga is expected to decline that offer, but that wouldn’t necessarily rule out a return even if he does so. Bruce Levine of 670 The Score suggests that the sides could look to reunite on a two-year deal this winter, which could come either before or after the QO deadline next week.
Reuniting with Imanaga would be a gamble, given the uncertain nature of Wrigley Field’s park factors and Imanaga’s struggles with keeping the ball in the park. Even so, however, it’s at least plausible that being attached to draft pick compensation dampens Imanaga’s market enough that a return to the Cubs makes sense for him. Chicago seems unlikely to participate in a bidding war for his services after declining a three-year, $54MM option on his services at the outset of the offseason, but if Imanaga were considering accepting the QO a two-year deal could theoretically allow the Cubs to lower the hit they’ll face for luxury tax purposes while also creating some additional security for Imanaga.
As for the bullpen, the Cubs are in need of reinforcements there most of all. Brad Keller, Drew Pomeranz, Caleb Thielbar, and Andrew Kittredge were all key high leverage arms for the team this season but are no longer with the club; the former three are free agents, while the latter was traded to Baltimore to avoid the buyout on his club option. That leaves Chicago with little certainty in the bullpen outside of Daniel Palencia, but reporting has suggested they won’t be very involved on top free agent relief arms like Edwin Diaz and Devin Williams. That still leaves a number of interesting veterans who could be had a one- or two-year deals, however, like Kenley Jansen and Pete Fairbanks.
Cubs aren’t signing Tucker, and that’s okay with most fans I think. But Hoyer does need to sign a starter, whether it’s bringing back Shota or someone else.. No thank you to Bregman as well, Shaw looked much better in the second half, let him build on from this past season.
Cubs fans should prepare for the team to take several steps backwards in 2026.
On the contrary, and I’m not even a Cubs fan. This is the 2nd best team in the NL this year. Their position player core is rock solid and they have more from that killer farm system on its way (Caissie is a superstar hitter in waiting). And they are doing it with probably the highest unused financial capacity in the industry. Sign or trade for a couple pitchers and this is a championship team.
Cubs annoy the crap out of me because they are the personification of a rich team that doesn’t spend. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t REALLY good.
The Cubs and Red Sox are both sleeping giants. If either wake up and decide to go all in with a top 5 payroll, they could go from strong playoff contenders to inner circle contenders.
Both need a #2 starter and arguably a #3 starter. If either went and landed two of Cease, Imai, Suarez, Valdez, Ryan or Gore they’d vault themselves into the non-Dodger favorites tier. With only one, they stay as solid contenders and without any of them, they are in danger of slipping out of the playoffs.
Which one of the Rickettses wrote your comment for you?
Second-best team in the NL? The Cubs were not better than the Brewers. The Cubs were not better than the Phillies. Fourth-best, maybe. Their position-player core lacks any truly elite players. The Cubs minor-league system has depth but few, if any, players projected to be superstars. You massively overvalue Owen Caissie, someone who has never had more hits than strikeouts at any minor-league level. His lack of contact skills will only be further exploited in the Major Leagues. Caissie didn’t even make Keith Law’s Top 100 prospects list this year.
The Cubs should be condemned for spending less than 40% of their revenue on payroll, not praised.
The Rickettses’ plan is to make the Cubs just decent enough to play meaningful games in September and possibly make it into the playoffs. Anything beyond that is a happy accident.
The Cubs were good this year, but they could have been excellent if the owners would have been willing to spend more. The team wasn’t and isn’t really good, no matter how many upper-case letters you use.
My reply is directed toward Seamaholic, not Can we please get a DH?, who thinks more along my lines.
Pitching might be what Jed says is the priority, but they absolutely need to replace Tucker’s bat. PCA and Busch had great years, but I wouldn’t consider them to be enough to keep up the production.
Funny how they’ve run through Bellinger and Tucker with nothing really to show for it. Now they’re both available.
PCA had a great first half. 2nd half wasn’t near as good
Cease and a trade for Sonny gray seem like a good fit…
That makes sense on paper, but I doubt the Cardinals would trade Sonny Gray to their division rival.
I don’t know, he’ll be pretty old by the time their rebuild is finished.
Pass on Gray if the Cards did trade him to the Cubs it would be at a high cost.
Tatsuya Imai! 27 YO with a nice arsenal of pitches.
Might be a better option than Valdez or Cease.
As we post, Seiya Suzuki might be feeling a bit lonesome on the Cubs roster. That said, I could easily envision the Cubs signing Tatsuya Imai while also reuniting with Shota Imanaga.
I also wouldn’t be shocked if the Cubs made a play for Japanese corner infielders Munetaka Murakami or Kazuma Okamoto. The latter would be a more practical roster fit with his right-handed bat and some additional experience in the outfield. He’d also be more affordable than Murakami which would be just fine with Tom Ricketts.
@Doug Dascenzo’s Mob Boss Dad
That’s hard to imagine, at least in the NL Central with the rebuilding Cardinals and the frugal Pirates. The Cubs only division competition are the Brewers and the Reds, neither of whom will outspend them even if the Ricketts limit Jed Hoyer’s budget.
He’s a good regular season pitcher, but I don’t want Imanaga under any circumstances over ten million dollars. If you can’t trust him in the playoffs, he really does you no good with a big contract.
I’m leaning towards him taking the 1 year/$22M QO. Dude’s wasn’t that great and is 32. He can leave the door open to going back home after a season if he wants to, especially with a more than likely lockout that is going to happen.
CubFan36 – You’re living in a 2010 salary mindset. 10 million gets you very little when it comes to SP in free agency these days. Frankie Montas got 2 years 34 million last year.
Even if you think second-half 2025 Shota is how he will look going forward, he still gets more than 10 million
It’s a miracle the Cubs won a World Series under the Ricketts ownership.
insert eyeroll
I put him back to the Cubs in the contest figuring he’d either accept the QO or it would affect his market enough to make coming back to the Cubs on a modest AAV shorter deal a possibility. There seems to be some fan and media sentiment that he is well liked there.
Also picked Framber for the Cubs just because of the quality of that infield defense. Seems like a good fit in that way even if other factors might not put them together.
Reuniting with Shota Imanaga and signing Framber Valdez would give the Cubs three southpaws in their starting rotation come opening day. When Justin Steele returns from his TJ surgery they’d have another.
Valdez makes some sense with his affinity for getting ground balls but I believe he’ll be too expensive and too old for consideration. His QO would also factor into Jed’s equation. I believe if the Cubs overlook the QO they’d prefer reuniting with bat missing RHP Dylan Cease or steel Craig Counsell fave Brandon Woodrfuff from the rival Brewers.
Yeah. But I’m not trying to get 50/50. I try to place the position players more in a puzzle. But might be comfortable choosing multiple pitchers to one team thinking that team would target a group. I figured the Cubs would be in on starting pitching. I dont see both ending up there but I saw market factors that might lead to an Imanaga reunion and I had a hard time placing Valdez so I went with the theoretical roster fit. Ignoring the idea that the Cubs can’t spend on top tier players because that doesn’t make a ton of sense to me. I don’t get the idea in this article that Valdez will be priced out of the Cubs range but Suarez, King and some other players mentioned for them are within their limits. By AAV it feels within a few million bucks and Valdez is so much more durable than most. I thought about Woodruff for the Cubs and ultimately had him following Stearns to Queens. I was looking for durability for the Cubs. Is that a wrong read? I think I considered Bassitt there as well but just stuck with the two above. I don’t know. Feels like it’s hard to nail the pitching dominos.
Jason Heyward arc still astounds. At the age of 20, he had 6.4 WAR. At 25, he’s a free agent coming off a 7 BWAR year. He’s now had 30 of his career 41.5 WAR. Then, it’s as if an imposter takes over. His contract runs its course, and in 124 games with the Dodgers (good judges of baseball talent) he does enough to get signed for $9M! Which they eat the following August. He made over $200M and I suppose if you spread out $200M over a 41 WAR total, well, it’s a lot, but
He was like how Steven Kwan is now. Got most of his value from defense. When his athleticism slips, he’s not nearly the same player.
Didn’t Steele technically not have Tommy John? While it was a UCL injury they went the route of UCL revision repair with an internal brace instead oh UCL reconstruction (Tommy John Surgery) which has to replace the fully torn UCL.
The recovery time is 6-8 months for what Steele had instead of 12-14 for TSJ. The cubs haven’t ruled out him being ready for opening day or early in the season, as hes already throwing lightly.
Justin Steele did have the UCL internal brace surgery last April and not the full-on TJ procedure. He did have the latter back in 2017 while still pitching for the Cubs A+ team in Myrtle Beach. He could potentially be ready by opening day with a conservative late April return more likely barring any other setbacks.
While the Cubs definitely need to focus on starting pitching, they can’t overlook the necessity of having an offensive centerpiece… which they’ll lose if they don’t sign Tucker. Cubs need someone in that line-up that other teams point to and say, “Be careful of that guy.,” and someone the rest of the Cubs offense will coalesce around. If Tucker walks, the Cubs don’t have that. Happ, Suzuki, Hoerner, Swanson, Busch, Kelly.. all of them are legit offensively, but none can carry a team on their back like what’s needed to build a championship team. PCA could potentially become that centerpiece, but it’s still too early to say. He could end up being Trea Turner or he could end up being Javy Baez. Cubs can’t go into the season counting on the former. I would like to throw Busch’s name out there as someone who could take on that role, but when you’re getting platooned for LHP, that’s a real stretch at this point.
I don’t want to hear any hedging by ownership because of Jason Heyward. That is not a valid excuse to keep from signing a big-time player to a big-time contract. Heyward was 10 years ago. The only reason Heyward gets used as a cautionary tale is because he’s been the only free agent the Cubs have spent big on in, like, forever… so, naturally, he’s gonna stand out. If the Cubs went after top tier players regularly in free agency, they’d have some successes, proving that they should’ve been doing it all along. The point to make about Heyward isn’t that sometimes a free agent signing doesn’t work out, it’s that the Cubs have steadfastly refused to even try in the first place. That is as symbolic of their small-market approach as much as anything.
The Cubs have so many essential pieces in place. This is a legitimately solid team. A top offensive addition and a top TOR addition, and we’ve got a team with a credible belief to contend for a title.