Cubs To Select Drew Pomeranz
The Cubs are expected to select the contract of veteran reliever Drew Pomeranz, according to multiple reports, including from Bruce Levine of 670 The Score. The team optioned left-hander Jordan Wicks to the minors yesterday. Chicago has an opening on the 40-man roster, so no additional move will be needed.
Pomeranz opened the year with the Angels. He struggled to a 5.01 ERA in 25 appearances. The lefty also missed time with elbow inflammation. Los Angeles released Pomeranz in mid-June. He joined the Cubs on a minor league deal a few days later. Pomeranz spent 2025 in Chicago, pitching to a 2.17 ERA as a valuable member of the bullpen.
The Angels are still on the hook for Pomeranz’s $4MM contract. The Cubs will only owe him the prorated portion of the league minimum while he’s on the roster. That amount will be subtracted from the Angels’ bill.
After three seasons away from the big leagues, Pomeranz made a triumphant return last year. He worked in a variety of roles for the Cubs and was effective in each. The veteran picked up 14 holds and a save, while also making four appearances as an opener. The most encouraging number for Pomeranz was a career-high 57 appearances. The oft-injured lefty delivered one of his healthiest campaigns at age 36.
Pomeranz will join a Cubs bullpen in desperate need of healthy arms. Daniel Palencia, Phil Maton, Hoby Milner, and Ethan Roberts have all gone down in recent weeks. They joined Hunter Harvey, Riley Martin, and Shelby Miller on the injured list. Porter Hodge is done for the season. The rash of injuries has led to 10 different relievers recording saves. Pomeranz was expected to factor into the closer mix with the Angels. That didn’t pan out, but he could get another chance with the Cubs.
Photo courtesy of Kiyoshi Mio, Imagn Images
Cubs Designate Vince Velasquez For Assignment
The Cubs are recalling left-hander Jordan Wicks, according to Taylor McGregor of ESPN. Wicks will be available as a bulk reliever in today’s game, per McGregor. Right-hander Vince Velasquez is being designated for assignment in a corresponding move. That leaves Chicago with an open 40-man roster spot.
After a late-season stop in the Korea Baseball Organization in 2025, Velasquez signed a minor league deal with the Cubs in February of this year. He was selected at the end of April and appeared in one game before being designated for assignment and electing free agency in lieu of an outright assignment. The two parties re-upped on a new minor league pact on May 4th. Velasquez was selected four days ago, again appearing in one game before being designated. He’s thrown 3 1/3 scoreless innings across those two big league games, but he struck out just one batter.
Velasquez has over eight years of service time and has been outrighted twice before, so he can reject another such assignment if he clears waivers. Velasquez has a 6.15 ERA and a troubling 16.2% walk rate in 33 2/3 innings at Triple-A this year. With those poor results, it’s unlikely another team will claim him. A likely outcome is that Velasquez will clear waivers, elect free agency, and sign a new minor league deal with the Cubs shortly after, not unlike the arrangement between the Braves and Carlos Carrasco.
Wicks opened the season on the 15-day injured list with left elbow inflammation, which kept him out of action until May 15th. Since being activated, Wicks has been optioned and recalled twice, throwing just 6 1/3 big league innings in the meantime. Wicks got shelled for eight earned runs in 4 1/3 innings against the Pirates on May 26th. He followed that by allowing three earned runs in two innings against the Cardinals on May 31st.
Wicks has started all 11 of his appearances at Triple-A this year, but he hasn’t been any better there, posting a 6.64 ERA in 42 innings. If he doesn’t appear in today’s game, the Cubs could elect to use Wicks as a spot starter. That’s not exactly a necessity, as the team has two off days between now and the All-Star break. If the starters are all well-rested, Wicks could simply be optioned without making an appearance.
Photo courtesy of Steven Bisig, Imagn Images
Cubs Place Edward Cabrera On 15-Day IL, Recall Jordan Wicks
Right-hander Edward Cabrera is heading to the injured list, the Cubs announced. Cabrera left his most recent start with a blister on his right middle finger. The injury will cost him at least a couple of weeks. Lefty Jordan Wicks was recalled to take Cabrera’s spot on the roster.
Cabrera was pulled after three innings on Wednesday against the Brewers. He allowed four runs, though only one was earned, thanks to errors by Carson Kelly and Pete Crow-Armstrong. It was Cabrera’s eighth consecutive appearance allowing 3+ runs. He’d opened the season with 11 2/3 scoreless frames.
It’s difficult news for a Cubs rotation already missing Matthew Boyd, Cade Horton, and Justin Steele. Boyd is expected to return sometime in June, but Horton is done for the year, and Steele is out until after the All-Star break. Chicago has stretched out Ben Brown as a starter after he opened the year in the bullpen. Colin Rea has been in the rotation since early April. Wicks likely steps into the No. 5 spot until Cabrera is ready to come back.
Chicago acquired Cabrera in an offseason trade with the Marlins that sent top prospect Owen Caissie and two other minor leaguers to Miami. The 27-year-old was coming off his best all-around season with the Fish. Cabrera delivered 26 starts with a 3.53 ERA as a full-time member of Miami’s rotation. He cut his walk rate below 10% for the first time as a big leaguer.
Injuries plagued Cabrera for much of his time with the Marlins. He missed time with elbow and shoulder issues in 2022 and 2023. A shoulder impingement sent the righty to the IL multiple times in 2024. Cabrera dealt with a blister to begin 2025 on the same finger giving him trouble right now. The injury only cost him the first two weeks of last season. Cabrera was healthy for the majority of the campaign, tossing a career-high 137 2/3 innings. He did go down with an elbow sprain in September, but made it back on the mound for two outings to close the year.
Wicks has been up and down with the big-league club for the past three seasons. He operated as a starter in his first two years with the team, then moved to the bullpen in 2025. The lefty showed improved velocity as a reliever last season, but posted a 6.28 ERA across 14 1/3 innings. Wicks has been back to starting at Triple-A this year. He’s notched a 4.44 ERA over seven outings.
Photo courtesy of Jerome Miron, Imagn Images
Porter Hodge, Jordan Wicks Likely To Begin Season On Cubs’ IL
Right-hander Porter Hodge and left-hander Jordan Wicks are each dealing with arm problems and will probably start the season on the 15-day injured list, Cubs manager Craig Counsell told reporters (including MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian). Hodge has a right flexor strain, while Wicks is dealing with radial nerve irritation in his left forearm.
Hodge hasn’t pitched since February 27, and he hasn’t looked right in any of his three Cactus League outings this spring, with a whopping 31.50 ERA to show for two innings of work. Counsell said Hodge’s flexor strain doesn’t appear to be serious in terms of a long-term absence, though the righty will be shut down for the next two weeks to heal up.
Wicks’ forearm issue was initially described just as irritation, with an MRI revealing no structural problems. Nerve problems can tend to linger, though the good news is that Wicks has been able to play catch, and Counsell is hopeful the southpaw will start throwing off a mound by the middle of March.
It was no guarantee that either pitcher was going to make the Cubs’ Opening Day roster, though today’s news means that both the rotation and bullpen depth charts have taken a hit. Wicks (the 21st overall pick of the 2021 draft) worked just as a reliever during his eight MLB appearances in 2025, though he has pitched mostly as a starter throughout the rest of his time in the majors and minors.
Despite his draft pedigree and some top-100 prospect attention during his time in the minors, Wicks has yet to establish himself as a big leaguer, with a modest 5.21 ERA, 18.5% strikeout rate, and 7.5% walk rate to show for 95 career innings with the Cubs. Past injuries haven’t helped (Wicks missed a big chunk of 2024 due to a forearm strain and an oblique strain), and Wicks spent 2025 being shuttled back and forth between Chicago and Triple-A Iowa with only sporadic usage in the majors.
Hodge burst onto the scene with a 1.88 ERA and 31.7% strikeout rate over 43 innings in his 2024 rookie season, albeit with the benefit of a .189 BABIP. Things didn’t go nearly as smoothly last year, as Hodge spent close to two months on the IL due to oblique and shoulder problems, and he posted only a 6.27 ERA over 33 innings of work. As per the SIERA metric, Hodge’s two big league seasons haven’t been too dissimilar (3.22 in 2024, 3.80 in 2025), and he remains an intriguing bullpen arm if he can stay healthy and figure out some control problems.
Cubs’ Tyler Austin Out “Months” Following Knee Surgery
First baseman/outfielder Tyler Austin recently underwent a debridement procedure on the patellar tendon in his right knee, which will leave him sidelined for “months,” Cubs skipper Craig Counsell announced to the team’s beat this morning (link via Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times). That suggests he’ll be a 60-day IL candidate the next time Chicago needs a 40-man roster spot.
Austin, 34, has spent the past six seasons with the Yokohama DeNA BayStars in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. He originally signed in NPB after spending parts of four big league seasons with the Yankees, Twins, Giants and Brewers, during which he posted a .219/.292/.451 slash with 33 homers in 583 turns at the plate.
While Austin showed plenty of power over his relatively limited MLB tenure, he was far too prone to strikeouts, fanning in a grisly 36.9% of his career plate appearances in the majors. He’s radically cut down on his strikeouts in Japan and has been especially productive the past two seasons, combining for a .299/.370/.559 slash with a 10.3% walk rate against a 19.2% strikeout rate.
Clearly, Austin is not facing as strong of competition in NPB as he would in MLB, but it’s still a notably more encouraging strikeout rate. Even it can be reasonably expected to climb several points back in North American ball, it’s unlikely to practically double; Austin seems to have made some clear gains in terms of contact and pitch selection.
For now, the well-traveled veteran’s MLB comeback will be on hold. The Cubs signed him to a one-year, $1.25MM contract over the winter, putting him on the 40-man roster in the process. The hope was that he could spell Michael Busch against tough lefties after Busch hit just .207/.274/.368 in left-on-left matchups this past season (and .230/.295/.366 in his career). Austin also has plenty of corner outfield experience and could’ve made occasional appearances there or at designated hitter versus southpaws.
Perhaps that role will still be waiting for him when he’s sufficiently rehabbed this knee injury, but a firm timetable is tougher to ascertain. In the meantime, non-roster invitees like Chas McCormick, Dylan Carlson and Michael Conforto now stand a better chance of breaking camp with the club.
Counsell also revealed that lefty Jordan Wicks has been slowed by forearm inflammation, but the team has already ordered an MRI which did not show structural damage to the southpaw’s ulnar collateral ligament. It’s unclear when he’ll get into games.
The 26-year-old Wicks is a former first-round pick and top prospect but has been pushed way down the depth chart for the Cubs, who’ll open the season with Edward Cabrera, Cade Horton, Matthew Boyd, Jameson Taillon and Shota Imanaga in the rotation. Righty Colin Rea is back to hold down a swing role and could get the first crack at spot starts as needed. The Cubs also have Javier Assad and Ben Brown on the active roster, while ace Justin Steele should be back from last year’s UCL repair at some point in the season’s first few months, barring setbacks.
Wicks is somewhere around eighth or ninth on the rotation depth chart at the moment. He pitched only out of the bullpen in the majors last year (8 1/3 innings), and that role might give him a better crack at eventually carving out some staying power on the big league roster. He’s pitched 95 big league innings across the past three seasons and owns a lackluster 5.21 earned run average with a sub-par 18.5% strikeout rate but solid walk and ground-ball rates of 7.5% and 43%, respectively. He notched a 3.55 ERA, 26.1% strikeout rate and 7.8% walk rate in 71 Triple-A frames last year (16 starts, four relief appearances).
Cade Horton To Miss At Least One Playoff Series Due To Rib Fracture
The Cubs will be without one of their top starters for at least the first round of the playoffs, as Cade Horton has been placed on the 15-day injured list (retroactive to September 25) due to a non-displaced right rib fracture. Left-hander Jordan Wicks was called up to take Horton’s roster spot for the final two games of Chicago’s regular season.
Horton made an early exit from his last start on Tuesday due to back soreness, and a follow-up MRI revealed an unspecified issue in his ribcage, as manager Craig Counsell told reporters earlier this week. Horton threw in the outfield yesterday and was slated to throw a bullpen session today, yet those positive signs have now been abruptly overshadowed by the news of the IL placement.
In the best-case scenario, Horton is now out of action until at least Game 5 of the NLDS, should the Cubs make it that deep into the second playoff round. Given that narrow window for activation, it doesn’t seem likely that the Cubs would include him on an NLDS roster, so a more realistic scenario would see Horton return as part of the NLCS roster if he can get healthy.
Of course, Chicago’s chances at such a deep postseason run will be a lot more difficult without the rookie who has emerged as a key rotation piece. Horton figures to get plenty of NL Rookie of the Year votes in the wake of a debut season that has seen the right-hander post a 2.67 ERA over his first 118 innings in the bigs. A 4.26 SIERA reflects Horton’s underwhelming 20.4% strikeout rate and the good fortune he has enjoyed in the both of both a 78.3% strand rate and a .258 BABIP, but Horton’s 6.9% walk rate is very solid.
There’s also the fact that Horton (the seventh overall pick of the 2022 draft) was getting better as he gained more experience. He posted a 4.45 ERA across his first 56 2/3 innings, but then delivered just a 1.03 ERA over his next 12 starts and 61 1/3 frames. This was seemingly a good omen for Horton and the Cubs as the playoffs loomed, as the rookie had locked up a spot in Chicago’s postseason rotation.
The Cubs should have enough starting pitching options to get by, even if their depth chart has now been shortened. Shota Imanaga, Matthew Boyd, and either Colin Rea or Jameson Taillon will be the starters for the best-of-three Wild Card Series, and that quartet should line up as the rotation for the remainder of the postseason. Javier Assad is also in line to be at least a multi-inning reliever in October, and Counsell has indicated that he’ll use his entire pitching staff to navigate the playoffs, perhaps outside of traditional starter/reliever roles.
With two games left in the regular season, the Cubs are two games ahead of the Padres for the top NL wild card slot. Unless the Cubs go 0-2 and the Padres go 2-0 the rest of the way, their NLWCS will be played in Chicago, with Game 1 set for Tuesday.
Cubs Hoping To Reinstate Kyle Tucker On Friday; Daniel Palencia Reinstated Today
The Cubs are hoping to have outfielder Kyle Tucker back in the lineup on Friday. “I think we’re trending towards that,” manager Craig Counsell said today, per Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times. Tucker is on the 10-day injured list and would need to be officially reinstated, which would require a corresponding active roster move.
Tucker is one of the better players in the league, when healthy. That qualifier has become more significant in recent years. He hardly missed any time from 2020 through 2023. Last year, a fractured shin limited him to just 78 games.
Here in 2025, he has played far more, though it appears some minor injuries have been impacting his production. He was diagnosed with a hairline fracture in his right hand in June, though that issue didn’t become publicly known until August. He had a huge .284/.395/.524 slash line through June 1st when he jammed his finger sliding into a base. His production continued to be strong in the initial wake of that injury, as he hit .311/.404/.578 in June. But it seemed to catch up to him in July, as he hit .218/.380/.295 that month and .244/.346/.389 in August.
After appearing in just two September games, a left calf strain put him out of action. He wasn’t immediately placed on the IL, as the club seemingly held out hope of him quickly bouncing back. That didn’t come to pass, so he hit the shelf September 9th, retroactive to September 6th. It was hoped that he could make a fairly quick return but that also hasn’t come to pass, as the issue has now lingered for about three weeks in total.
The Cubs have already clinched a playoff spot but won’t be able to secure a first-round bye since the Brewers have the Central sewn up. That means the Cubs will be playing in the Wild Card round, which begins on Tuesday. Ideally, Tucker can indeed be activated on Friday, which would give him three contests to get reacquainted with major league game speed before the playoffs begin.
Given his talents, Tucker’s return will be very important for the Cubs as they look to engineer a deep playoff run. It’s also incredibly important for him personally, since he’s an impending free agent. From 2020 through 2023, he slashed .277/.350/.516 for a 136 wRC+ with 77 stolen bases and strong outfield grades. Last year, even though he missed time with the shin fracture, he had an even better .289/.408/.585 line and 179 wRC+.
He seemed to be trending towards a massive contract this winter, with some even suggesting he could top $500MM on a deal of a decade or longer. This year’s nagging injuries have cut into his momentum. His season-long line of .270/.381/.472 still translates to a strong 139 wRC+ but, as mentioned earlier, he was better before getting banged up. Quickly getting back on track and cranking out a few timely hits under the bright lights of the postseason would surely help ease any sudden doubts that teams may have about making a long commitment to him.
Elsewhere on the Cubs’ roster, the pitching staff is getting a boost. Right-hander Daniel Palencia has been reinstated from the IL today, per Jordan Bastian of MLB.com, with left-hander Jordan Wicks optioned out in a corresponding move.
Palencia hit the IL a couple of weeks back due to a shoulder strain. Prior to that, he was having a breakout season and took over the closer’s role in the process. He currently has 51 innings pitched on the year with a flat earned run average of 3.00. He has struck out 28.1% of batters faced while giving out walks at a 7.6% clip, recording 22 saves in the process.
Getting him back just before the playoffs is a nice bump for the playoffs but the pitching staff could also lose a notable member. Righty Cade Horton, who departed his most recent start due to back tightness, is set to undergo an MRI. Counsell relayed that update on 670 The Score, per Bruce Levine.
Horton has had an excellent debut this year with a 2.67 ERA, 20.4% strikeout rate, 6.9% walk rate and 42.3% ground ball rate. If healthy, he would be in the mix for playoff starts alongside Shota Imanaga and Matthew Boyd. A notable injury would obviously take that off the table and lead to Jameson Taillon, Javier Assad and Colin Rea jumping up the depth chart.
Photo courtesy of Jonathan Hui, Imagn Images
Cubs Select Brooks Kriske
The Cubs announced that right-hander Brooks Kriske‘s contract has been selected from Triple-A Iowa. Left-hander Jordan Wicks was optioned to Triple-A to create 26-man roster space, and that was the only corresponding move necessary since Chicago already had an open spot on its 40-man roster.
Kriske was signed to a minor league deal during the offseason, and this marks his second stint on the Cubs’ MLB roster this season. The righty ended up appearing in one game when his contract was previously selected back in May, and the Cubs designated him for assignment a few days later, and then outrighted Kriske off the 40-man roster once he cleared waivers.
That two-inning outing on May 24 marked Kriske’s first big league game since he appeared in four games for the 2023 Royals. Kriske’s Major League resume consists of 21 games and 23 2/3 innings over parts of four seasons with the Yankees, Orioles, Royals, and Cubs, and he has been hit hard for a 10.27 ERA during his brief time in the Show.
This could very well end up being another cup of coffee in the majors for Kriske, as the Cubs might just need a fresh arm for the weekend in the wake of yesterday’s 11-0 loss to the Yankees. Wicks allowed six runs over three innings of work in a relief outing and surely wouldn’t have been available for either of the two games remaining before the All-Star break.
The situation lines Kriske up for a possible appearance against his former team, and the club that initially selected him in the sixth round of the 2016 draft. After spending parts of his first five pro seasons with the Yankees, Kriske has bounced around to a few other teams and also spent parts of the 2022-23 seasons pitching in Japan.
Javier Assad Ruled Out For Opening Day
Cubs right-hander Javier Assad has been sidelined this spring due to oblique soreness, and 670 The Score’s Bruce Levine relays this afternoon that the righty won’t be ready to pitch in time for either the Tokyo Series on March 18 or the club’s stateside opener against the Diamondbacks on March 27. Presumably, the Cubs will place him on the injured list to open the season, leaving him out of action for at least the beginning of April.
Assad, 27, has found plenty of success over three seasons in the majors with Chicago despite questionable peripherals. The right-hander served in a part-time swing role for the Cubs in both the 2022 and ’23 seasons, posting a 3.06 ERA (139 ERA+) in 147 innings of work across 41 appearances (18 starts) during that two-year stretch. That excellent production came in spite of underlying numbers that were far less impressive. Assad walked 9.9% of his opponents while striking out just 20.2% of them over those first two seasons, and his 44.7% groundball rate was strong but not outstanding. That left him with a 4.34 FIP and a 4.59 SIERA over those two years, both of which painted him as a below average pitcher despite his above-average results.
When the right-hander was handed an Opening Day rotation spot by the Cubs last year, it was fair to wonder whether those lackluster peripherals would come back to bite him. He once again managed to defy the underlying metrics in 2024, however, posting a 3.73 ERA (107 ERA+) despite a 4.64 FIP and 4.72 SIERA. His strikeout, walk, and groundball rates were largely unchanged from the prior two seasons, but despite that he still posted the numbers of a solid back-end start across 147 innings and 29 starts. His 4.38 ERA and 4.80 FIP after the All-Star break last year stuck out as a potential cause for concern, but after an offseason that saw the club focus more on upgrading its lineup and bullpen rather than the rotation Assad once again figured to feature in the club’s starting five to open the 2025 season.
Those plans will have to be put on hold for now, however, as Assad is only just beginning to work his way back to the mound after being sidelined for all of last month by an oblique strain. Levine writes that the Cubs hope he’ll be able to proceed to throwing a bullpen session next week, but even that seems up in the air. Given the uncertainty surrounding Assad’s status, it’s hardly a surprise that the Cubs decided to formally pull the plug on him as an Opening Day possibility and begin exploring other options to fill out the rotation in earnest.
Shota Imanaga and Justin Steele front Chicago’s rotation and are slated to start the club’s two-game series against the Dodgers in Tokyo. Meanwhile, veterans Jameson Taillon and Matthew Boyd make up the middle of the Cubs’ rotation after Chicago added Boyd on a two-year deal back in December. With Assad no longer an option for the fifth starter job, it seems likely that the gig could fall to veteran swing man Colin Rea. Rea, 34, posted a 4.40 ERA (96 ERA+) and 4.82 FIP in 58 appearances (49 starts) with Milwaukee over the past two years. He figures to be on the Opening Day roster so long as he’s healthy, though he does have ample experience pitching in relief as well.
The possibility that Rea could be used as a long reliever rather than a starter leaves the door open for one of the Cubs’ other potential starting options to grab the fifth starter job. Right-hander Ben Brown dazzled in his rookie season with a 3.58 ERA and 3.11 FIP in 55 1/3 innings of work, and while he was sidelined by an osteoma on his neck for the entire second half last year he now appears to be fully healthy. Jordan Wicks struggled through an injury-marred campaign in 2024 but is a recent top-100 prospect with plenty of upside.
Veteran rotation arms Chris Flexen and Brad Keller are both in camp as non-roster invitees, and it’s possible either could factor into the competition for the fifth starter job alongside Rea, Brown, and Wicks. One player who is unlikely to compete for the job is top pitching prospect Cade Horton, who is healthy this spring after what amounted to a lost season in 2024 but still has minimal experience at the Triple-A level under his belt. Whoever earns the fifth starter job could theoretically pitch themselves into a more permanent job that lasts even beyond Assad’s upcoming IL stint, given that the 27-year-old has both ample bullpen experience and minor league options remaining.
Poll: Who Will Be The Cubs’ Fifth Starter?
As Spring Training gets underway, teams routinely find themselves dealing with unfortunate surprise injuries that can force a change in plans. That may prove to have been the case for the Cubs when presumed fifth starter Javier Assad was diagnosed with an oblique issue at the outset of camp. Given that the strain Assad is reportedly suffering from is mild, he hasn’t been ruled out for Opening Day. With that being said, The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma discussed the club’s rotation outlook yesterday and suggested that the Cubs may not push Assad to be ready for Opening Day.
If Assad were to open the season on the injured list, that would leave the door wide open for another player to take that final rotation spot, and even if he’s healthy Assad seems to be less firmly locked into the rotation than Shota Imanaga, Justin Steele, Jameson Taillon, or Matthew Boyd. Fortunately for the Cubs, they have the starting pitching depth necessary to cover for Assad if he’s injured and consider other options even in the event that he’s healthy. Though they’ll only need two starting pitchers for their two-game set against the Dodgers in Tokyo that predates the normal start of the regular season, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the Cubs wanted to have a good idea of what their rotation was going to look like entering that first series of the year.
If he’s healthy, Assad remains easy to bet on for the job. After all, the right-hander delivered 29 solid starts for the Cubs in 2024, pitching to a 3.73 ERA in 147 innings of work. Those are fairly impressive numbers for a back-end starter, but it’s worth noting they also come with notable red flags: Assad wore down badly throughout the year after a hot start, with a 4.84 ERA from June onward and an ugly 6.86 ERA down the stretch in September last year. In addition to those deep struggles later in the season, the right-hander also posted lackluster peripherals with a 4.64 FIP, a strikeout rate of just 19.4%, and a hefty 9.9% walk rate. That’s one of the 10 worst seasons by K-BB% and one of the 15 worst seasons by FIP in all of baseball last year among pitchers with as many innings as Assad.
Should Assad’s combination of spring injuries and second-half struggles give the Cubs enough pause to turn to someone else on Opening Day, it’s possible that offseason addition Colin Rea could be the first to get the call. Rea, 34, signed with the Cubs last month on a one-year, $5MM pact. The righty had a brief stint with the Cubs during the shortened 2020 season, but spend the past two seasons in Milwaukee as a back-end starter for the Brewers. The right-hander posted a 4.40 ERA and 4.82 FIP in 58 appearances over the past two seasons, 42 of which were starts.
Rea posted a higher FIP (4.75) and a lower strikeout rate (18.9%) than even Assad did last year, but he made up for that gap in effectiveness with volume. Rea posted 167 2/3 innings of work for the Brewers last year between 27 starts and five relief appearances, and showed the ability to pitch deep into games as he did so with 19 starts lasting longer than five innings, 11 of which went at least six and five of which saw him pitch into the seventh inning. That ability to pitch into the seventh sets Rea apart from his competitors, as all of the other pitchers mentioned who started an MLB game in the majors last year combined for just two seven-inning starts in 2024. Rea is also notable as the only pitcher discussed here who is both already on the 40-man roster and cannot be optioned to the minor leagues, meaning he’s all but assured a spot in either the Opening Day rotation or bullpen so long as he’s healthy.
While Assad and Rea may be the frontrunners for the job, there are certainly other options worth considering. Chief among those may be right-hander Ben Brown, who stepped into a rotation role with the Cubs early last year and looked good doing so. Brown’s rookie campaign saw him post a 3.58 ERA and 3.11 FIP with an excellent 28.8% strikeout rate. Those are fantastic numbers for any pitcher, but it’s particularly impressive for a 24-year-old getting his feet wet in the majors for the first time.
Unfortunately, Brown’s debut season was limited to just 55 1/3 innings in total, as he was shut down in June due to what Sharma reports turned out to be an osteoma, which is a benign tumor made of bone growing on an existing piece of bone. Brown appears to be healthy and ready to go for the 2025 season and is likely the pitcher with the highest upside the Cubs could turn to for their final rotation job, but his lack of big league experience and long layoff could make the club hesitant to immediately plug him into the rotation.
Another legitimate contender for the role could be southpaw Jordan Wicks, the club’s first-rounder from the 2021 draft and a former top-100 prospect. Wicks has yet to find success at the big league level in 80 2/3 innings of work across 18 appearances (17 starts), with a 5.02 ERA and a nearly matching 5.05 FIP. Like Brown, Wicks also missed much of the 2024 season due to injuries which, in his case, consisted of forearm and oblique issues. That combination of big league struggles and injury history seem to suggest the 25-year-old might be best suited to start the season at Triple-A, but his peripheral numbers were quite strong last year before he got bit by the injury bug as demonstrated by his 25.9% strikeout rate against an 8.3% walk rate in five starts before hitting the IL for the first time.
The aforementioned quartet aren’t the only plausible options, but they’re by far the most likely. Top prospect Cade Horton is a potential front-of-the-rotation arm who would be an exciting addition to the club’s staff, but he suffered a lost season in 2024 due to a subscapularis strain and is all but certain to get more reps in at Triple-A before making the jump to the majors. Non-roster invitees Brad Keller and Chris Flexen are veteran depth pieces who have served as viable back-end starters in recent years, but Keller appears to be getting work in as a reliever this spring while Flexen offers a similar profile to Rea but with lesser results and no guaranteed contract. Nate Pearson was discussed as a potential starting option over the offseason but has success in relief with the Cubs last year pitched just one inning of relief in his first spring appearance.
Who do MLBTR readers think the Cubs will turn to in order to round out the rotation? Will Assad return healthy and effective from his oblique issue to lock down the role? Will the club prioritize Rea due to volume and roster considerations, or go with a higher-upside pitcher like Brown or perhaps Wicks? Have your say in the poll below:
Who will be the Cubs' fifth starter in the Opening Day rotation?
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Colin Rea 28% (1,238)
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Javier Assad 26% (1,160)
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Ben Brown 23% (1,027)
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Jordan Wicks 16% (724)
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Someone Else 8% (341)
Total votes: 4,490