Until late Wednesday, afternoon, the Cubs‘ offseason had been something of a snoozer. In need of pitching depth, especially on the starting staff, and an offensive boost, team president Jed Hoyer and his front office had thus far stuck to lower tier moves to the frustration and dismay of some of the fanbase.
Not so much anymore after Wednesday’s deal that will add fireballing starter Edward Cabrera to the rotation. In a three-for-one trade with the Marlins, Hoyer and Co. made the kind of move that should make fans just fine with not getting any of the big name free agent pitchers that have been on the market this winter.
For the cost of their number one prospect Owen Caissie, their number eleven prospect Christian Hernandez, and minor leaguer Edgardo DeLeon, Cabrera will join a 2026 Cubs rotation that ranked 17th in baseball in fWAR last season.
Cabrera, 27, is an exciting addition to the starting staff in large part because of the swing-and-miss in his stuff. He had 150 strikeouts in 137 2/3 innings pitched last season, thanks to a fastball that averages around 97 miles per hour and offspeed stuff that held batters to well under a .200 batting average. When opposing hitters do make contact, Cabrera generates a lot of ground balls — at about a 47% rate over the past three seasons — which will play nicely with the defense the Cubs have up the middle.
Over the course of the regular season, having Cabrera in the mix will help with the aforementioned middle-of-the-pack performance of the starting rotation. On paper, the Cubs should be better in 2026 because of a full season from Cade Horton, the return of Justin Steele, improvements from Shota Imanaga, good health from Jameson Taillon, and (hopefully) the continued quality pitching of Matt Boyd. But there are a lot of caveats in the previous sentence, which helps illustrate why the Cubs needed more starting pitching this winter: Their ’26 rotation as constructed without him had too many variables.
Beyond that, Cabrera should also help the Cubs in the postseason, assuming they get there again. Last year’s playoff run was cut somewhat short because of a starting rotation that was held together by duct tape and wishful thinking. Cabrera does not have any postseason experience yet, but in a group that’s logged as many October innings as the rest of the Cubs rotation, he would not necessarily be expected to be the anchor.
Losing Caissie in the trade is tough; he was a long-term possibility for filling the void left in right field by Kyle Tucker’s departure and the likelihood that Seiya Suzuki is gone after this season when his contract expires and he becomes an unrestricted free agent. Caissie hit .192 with a home run and a double in 27 plate appearances for the Cubs in 2025, and at just 23, his future potential is very high. The Cubs still have outfield depth in their minor league system and Tucker is still on the market — odds of a Chicago reunion are not high — but the 2026 Cubs outfield of Ian Happ, Pete Crow-Armstrong, and Suzuki will probably need help at some point.
Along with the need for pitching depth, the Cubs are going to have to get a boost for their offense at some point this offseason as well. The connection to Alex Bregman is strong, and Bo Bichette remains unsigned, so there are opportunities on the open market. The Cubs have the financial means to make a strong play at either of those guys; the current roster with Cabrera on the books still has just over $35 million in space under the first tier of the luxury tax threshold, and that financial room swells mightily in 2027, when they are projected by Spotrac to have around $191 million in luxury tax space.
The mission for the Cubs’ front office this winter following a successful 2025 season needs to be making the team even better and building on the accomplishments of last year. As nice as 92 wins and the first postseason series victory since 2017 was, Cubs fans still have a bitter taste in their mouth over losing the regular season division title and then the National League Division Series to the Brewers.
Though there is still need on the offensive side, Cubs fans can probably rest assured that now that the Cabrera deal is done, the front office will likely double down on their efforts to bring another bat to the north side.
But there’s a lot of the offseason left to see how that will play out — though perhaps the front office might enjoy having a new pitcher and a new batter to introduce at the Cubs Convention next weekend — so for now, there is reason to feel better about the Cubs offseason thanks to Wednesday’s trade for Cabrera.
