2:08PM: Harvey’s deal is a one-year pact, as per Jon Heyman of the New York Post.
1:03PM: The Cubs and right-hander Hunter Harvey have agreed to a contract, according to The Athletic’s Will Sammon and Sahadev Sharma. The deal will become official once Harvey (a Beverly Hills Sports Council client) passes a physical.
Harvey is looking to bounce back from an injury-plagued 2025 season that saw the reliever make just 12 appearances out of the Royals bullpen. A teres major strain in early April kept Harvey out of action until late July, and he pitched in just six more games before being sidelined for good by a Grade 2 adductor strain. The frustration of these two significant injuries was compounded by the fact that Harvey was looking great when healthy — he didn’t allow a run over his 10 2/3 innings pitched, while issuing one walk against 11 strikeouts.
Between these injuries and the back problems that marred the end of his 2024 campaign, Harvey ended up pitching only 16 1/3 innings in a Royals uniform after Kansas City acquired the righty from Washington in July 2024. Unfortunately, health concerns are nothing new for Harvey, as his time as a top-100 prospect in the Orioles’ farm system was frequently interrupted by stints on the injured list.
It wasn’t until the 2022 season that Harvey (now with the Nationals) finally got an extended taste of MLB playing time. He proceeded to post a 3.17 ERA, 27.83% strikeout rate, and 6.36% walk rate over 145 relief innings during his time in D.C., working in a high-leverage role and occasionally as a closer with the Nats.
Harvey has been prone to allowing a lot of hard contact, but his control and strikeout ability has allowed him to get out of jams when allowing baserunners. Harvey has always been a hard thrower, though his 96.1 mph fastball in 2025 was the slowest velocity he has posted in his MLB career. Of course, it’s hard to draw conclusions from that sample size of 10 2/3 IP, and it is certainly possible that Harvey will regain a tick or two on his heater once healthy.
Availability is the lingering question for Harvey, yet there is plenty of upside for the righty as he enters his age-31 season. He is an ideal fit for Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer, who has traditionally shopped for lower-cost bullpen arms who can (if everything works out) provide plenty of bang for the buck.
Chicago’s two-year, $14.5MM deal with Phil Maton counts as a relative splurge by Hoyer’s bullpen spending standards, but the Cubs have now signed Maton, Harvey, Hoby Milner, Jacob Webb, and old friend Caleb Thielbar in what has quietly become a pretty extensive remodel of the relief corps. Daniel Palencia remains as the Cubs’ first choice for saves, but Harvey now provides some backup as a reliever with some ninth-inning experience.
It wouldn’t be a surprise to see the team pursue more veteran relievers on relatively inexpensive contracts, in order to give the Cubs as much depth as possible in advance of what Chicago hopes is a deeper postseason run. The Cubs have been linked to a number of bigger-ticket position players and starting pitchers, but Maton’s deal remains their largest investment in a new player this offseason.
He get hurt in the 12 mins since the news broke?
Yup my Cubies are goin’ for it! Hopefully Imai is next, then Bellinger again! 🙏
Cubs are going for nothing but third place behind the brewers and reds
Pirates will be better than Reds this year.
A dumpster dive signing
He still has to pass the physical.
Is this a good signing?
If he stays on the field, absolutely
Lots of upside
Lots of downside
My guess is a major league deal, but at a low salary
I had expected the Royals to try to bring him back
Career 3.11 ERA has good velocity on his fastball hitting the upper 90’s with a plus curveball , good command. He’s a solid bullpen arm that can miss bats but he has a history of missing playing time also. If he stays healthy he can be another Brad Keller type late inning arm
If I was 45 years younger and had 12 inches I’d call up Sydney Sweeney.
He misses bats because he is on the IL.
He should be a nice 60 day *
I knew a Mrs. Batts
Interesting signing. If Harvey stays healthy then this could be great.
He’s only 31? Thought he was older than that. Not really expecting much. Wonder if it’s a minor or major league deal? Doesn’t say. Cubs still have 5- 40 man spots open.
I’m going to guess major league. At worst, it’ll be a split deal.
Gotta stay healthy but could be a steal
Certainly more exciting than bringing Keegan Thompson back.
Had high hopes for Keegan at one time. Injuries and control did him in. No worse a gamble than Harvey IMO. They’re the same age with some of the same stuff. Not much difference really.
Aloha Uncle, I did too! Really wanted Keegan to succeed. Was neat to see him and Steele in the same game at times when they first got their call-ups. I hope Harvey can stay healthy. Boy pitchers seem to be so fragile these days, even BP types that don’t have so many innings on their arms. Mahalo!
Hunter and Thompson are pretty similar. As long as this is a low-price deal, the potential upside is worth it. As for Thompson, with the Reds just releasing him, I’m beating he stays with the Reds but if he chooses to leave, and he can stay healthy, the Cubs could do worse than add him for more depth on the Iowa/Chicago express.
He can’t be on the Iowa express anymore. He has no options. He has to be DFA’d then pass and NOT declare FAgency again. That’s why he’s gone.
You’re right Uncle, I missed that in the original announcement. Still, if Jed brings him back on a minor-league deal, I won’t be foaming at the mouth with anger.
I would say the Cubs should not have done this Hunter Harvey was horrible for the Royals. he barely pitched before he got injured in 2024 and then he got injured again in 2025, so he spent the majority of the time of his tenure with the Royals on the injury list.
Cubs look set with this sign. Have to take a shot on Ballesteros and Shaw and pass of Bregman and Tucker.
I wanted him on the Yankees. He’s been really good in the past with Washington, but he’s been hurt recently.
Hoyer is one of our great comedians, a clown in the mold of Emmett Kelly and Harpo Marx. He practices the humor of escalation: the Maton signing was funny, but each subsequent relief pitcher signing has been funnier than the one before.
Can he top this latest absurdity? It seems impossible, but I never count Hoyer out.
If it is a MLB deal it pushes Brown and Wicks into Iowa. Maybe even Assad.
If this is Jed building depth and stockpiling players with options ‘yawn’
If he is going to start trading after this build up then it becomes interesting
What is wrong with signing Maton? He’s a good high-leverage reliever and he pitched very well last year. Granted it was his walk year, but they didn’t pay that much. If they didn’t give him $7 million yearly some other team would have. And a cheap flyer for Harvey ain’t bad either.