Chicago Cubs: Edward Cabrera shocks and awes in spring debut– “He’s the real deal”

The Chicago Cubs gave up a lot to get Edward Cabrera from the Miami Marlins. In the deal to acquire the right-handed power pitcher, Chicago had to give up their no. 1 prospect Owen Caissie, their no. 11 prospect Cristian Hernandez, and promising 19-year-old Edgardo De Leon.

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The Cubs, however, walked away from the trade with zero remorse. They had tried to get him prior to the 2025 season as well as at the 2025 trade deadline last season, but weren’t willing to pull the trigger. This time, working under the belief that the young talent was on the verge of breaking though to next level success, they did.

Last season, Cabrera had a career year (8-7, 3.53 ERA with 150 strikeouts in 137.2 innings over 26 starts) and many believe there’s still a much higher ceiling for the native of the Dominican Republic, who is under team control through the 2028 season.

Cabrera dazzles in spring debut

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On Friday, the new Cub made his Cactus League debut versus the Cleveland Guardians at Sloan Park and looked absolutely stunning.

In two scoreless, hitless innings pitched, Cabrera struck out three. His fastball averaged an incredible 97 mph for his spring debut.

Per Yahoo! Sports’ account of Cabrera’s outing:

“Cabrera’s best pitch on Friday was his changeup. He induced three whiffs on that pitch alone, which included two swinging strike outs in the second inning. He perfectly placed his changeup at the bottom of the zone to both Gabriel Arias and CJ Kayfus. Both hitters then went down swinging.

It was an impressive spring debut for the new Cubs pitcher. He threw 20 of his 31 pitches for strikes and threw five different pitches in the game (four-seam fastball, changeup, curveball, sinker, and slider). 29% of his pitchers were either whiffs or called strikes.”

“I felt good,” Cabrera told reporters after the outing via translator. “I was trying to get all my pitches in the zone. That was my goal.”

The injury issue

Cubs manager Craig Counsell has been high on Cabrera for quite some time and is focused on keeping the young arm on the right developmental path, something which goes hand in hand with keeping him healthy.

Injuries have been the one knock against Cabrera and the reason some teams reportedly shied away from trading for him. Over the course of his young pro career, the 27-year-old has had numerous health issues, including right shoulder and elbow problems that have limited his output. Last year was the first time he pitched more than 100 innings in the majors and, even then, he spent time on the IL twice, the second time with some concerning UCL/elbow issues.

The Cubs staff is focused on keeping Cabrera healthy with advanced training techniques and common sense workload management, in much the same way they helped the oft-injured Matthew Boyd stay healthy and productive throughout 2025.

“Because he’s had some injuries, he just hasn’t put together the seasons necessarily that kind of make you go, ‘Wow,’” Counsell said after Cabrera’s first outing. “I don’t think there’s a big change that we think needs to happen here. That’s not what the trade was about.

“We just think this is a talented pitcher coming into the right part of his career. The health part of this is a real thing that we have to get right to the best of our ability.”

The Matthew Boyd endorsement

“Edward’s the real deal,” Boyd told reporters. “You’re going to see it.”

“In terms of how to fine-tune your abilities,” Boyd added, “it’s like, ‘OK, here’s how we can optimize where you are in your career health-wise and help you go forward with that.’ All those little things — at least from my experience — were huge for me last year…

“You think, ‘OK, cool, they did that with me. Let’s see what they can do with a stallion.’”

And Cabrera has the ability to be that stallion in the Cubs rotation, adding swing-and-miss power to a starting crew more known for nuance and generating weak contact.

He also brings a definite swagger to the staff.

“With all due respect to everyone here, whenever I step on the mound, I think I’m the best,” Cabrera told the Marquee Sports Network earlier in the spring. “Every time I cross that white line and I get out there and start pitching, I’m the best.”

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