Cubs acquire Nate Pearson from Blue Jays for pair of prospects

The Chicago Cubs have made their first move of trade season, and it falls in line with what president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said would be his focus ahead of the July 30 trade deadline.

On Saturday, the Cubs acquired 27-year-old right-handed pitcher Nate Pearson from the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for a pair of minor leaguers: infielder Josh Rivera and outfielder Yohendrick Piñango. To make room for Pearson on the 40-man roster, Jesús Tinoco was designated for assignment.

Speaking in the home dugout at Wrigley Field on Monday, Hoyer made it clear where his focus at the trade deadline had shifted.

“Where we are right now,” he said, “I would say that moves only for ’24, unless things change over the next week, I think we probably won’t do a lot of moves that only help us for this year. If moves help us in ’25 and beyond, I think we’re still exceptionally well-positioned. I think that’s what our focus will be, but just helping in ’24, I think that probably won’t be our focus unless things change dramatically.”

Hoyer did leave the door open for a change of heart if the Cubs were to go on a bit of a run over the last week before the deadline. However, they entered Saturday seven games under .500, in last place in the National League Central (11 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers) and 6 1/2 games back in the NL wild card race.

With that, this move to acquire Pearson is a sign Hoyer has stuck to his word.

Pearson was the Blue Jays’ top prospect and a top-10 prospect in baseball as recently as 2021 (per MLB Pipeline) after being their first-round pick in the 2027 MLB Draft, but his major league career hasn’t taken off the way he or Toronto had hoped. In the big leagues, he’s posted a 5.21 ERA and 1.46 WHIP in 93 career games (five starts). He also fell victim to the injury bug his first few seasons in the majors, limiting his time on the mound and preventing him from pitching for the Blue Jays at all in 2022.

That played a big part in Pearson shifting to the bullpen after only starting games in the minors prior to making his big league debut in 2020. Things haven’t gone much better for him in that role. In 2024, specifically, Pearson posted a 5.63 ERA in 41 appearances for Toronto, his worst single-season mark since his debut year (his 4.23 expected ERA indicates a bit of bad luck, but it still wouldn’t be a great number regardless).

But for the Cubs, Pearson presents an intriguing reclamation project.

He’s got premium velocity on his four-seamer. He averages 97.6 mph with the pitch (in MLB’s 95th percentile, per Statcast) and can even hit 100 mph with it (14 times this year alone). He pairs that with a slider that holds a 40.7 percent whiff rate, and he’s also got a curveball and sinker in his repertoire. That’s helped him to an overall 28 percent strikeout rate and 28.2 percent whiff rate, ranked in the 84th and 72nd percentile, respectively.

However, Pearson has gotten hit hard this season. His 42.9 percent hard-hit rate ranks in the 19th percentile, and his 8.9 percent barrel rate ranks in the 27th percentile. He’s struggled with the four-seamer, as opponents have hit .342 and slugged .532 against the pitch (though the expected numbers would at least be an improvement). The .356 BABIP (batting average on balls in play) against him would also suggest some bad luck.

Regardless, Pearson just hasn’t been able to put it together at the big league level. But as someone with very strong stuff, Pearson seems like the kind of arm the Cubs love to get into their pitching infrastructure to try and get more out of.

Pearson fits into Hoyer’s trade deadline focus because he’s under team control for two more seasons. Not only can go on to pitch for the team this season, but he could potentially be a contributor over the next couple of years, too. So, though Hoyer gave up a pair of prospects in Rivera and Piñango, it wasn’t for a rental piece with only 2024 in mind.

This move was made to potentially help the Cubs in 2025 and beyond. Now, it’s up to them to help him turn into a legitimate piece of their bullpen moving forward.

Rivera, 23, was hitting .169 with four home runs in 68 games with Double-A Tennessee this season after being drafted by the Cubs in the third round in 2023. Piñango, 22, was hitting .263 with nine home runs and 40 RBIs in 84 games between High-A South Bend and Tennessee in 2024. He’s Rule-5 Draft eligible this offseason.

The two were ranked No. 23 and 29, receptively, in the Cubs’ farm system by MLB Pipeline.

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