Chicago Cubs barraged by pitching pickup suggestions

The Chicago Cubs have had a charmed 2026—despite a long and unprecedentedly brutal run of pitching injuries that has besieged the team over the first five weeks or so of the season.

More News: Chicago Cubs: What Conforto’s walk-off HR says about team’s undervalued strength

Emerging ace Cade Horton was lost for the year (and beyond) with an elbow injury requiring season-ending surgery. Opening Day starter Matthew Boyd then went on the IL and missed three starts. Relievers Daniel Palencia, Phil Maton, Hunter Harvey, Caleb Thielbar, Ethan Roberts, and Riley Martin all went down to injury as well, although Palencia and Maton are now back on the big league roster. Even lefty ace Justin Steele has seen his return from elbow surgery put off due to a setback in his recovery.

The Cubs have had to dig deep into their bag of reserve, minor league contract arms picked up in the offseason. Emergency call-ups Corbin Martin, Ryan Rolison, Charlie Barnes, Vince Velasquez, and Yacksel Rios have all seen innings this year as the team worked to cope with the loss of so much major league pitching at once.

And Chicago is not out of the woods yet. Even when guys like Thielbar and Harvey return, there will still be need for starting pitching depth and some more bullpen assets.

Big trades won’t be coming anytime soon

More News: Chicago Cubs-Kyle Tucker “real” story revealed on live TV?

But it’s still early May and big, impactful trades are unlikely to be on the table until closer to the August 3 trade deadline. So, the pitching help they clearly need right now has to come via small trade or, most likely, from digging through arms discarded by other teams.

“I’m sure it’s going to be a summer of working through our internal guys, but external is going to be a real thing as we go on,” Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer told reporters last Friday, while acknowledging that he’s constantly on the lookout for smaller transactions.

“It’s also May 1, and it takes awhile for those things to happen,” Hoyer added. “We’re going to have to wait and handle those things internally.”

On Sunday, it was announced that Chicago had picked up lefty Luis Peralta off waivers from the St. Louis Cardinals.

Suggested pitching pickups

Fans and media have been tossing out numerous other suggestions when it comes to who the Cubs could realistically add to get them pitching-right until a bigger acquisition can be made.

The Atlanta Braves and Miami Marlins, for example, have recently DFAd veterans Carlos Carrasco and Chris Paddack, respectively. The 39-year-old Carrasco is a 17-year MLB veteran who hasn’t posted a quality full season since 2018. The 30-year-old Paddack has gone nearly as long since actually delivering the goods.

Both right-handers can be used as swingmen and as emergency spot starters. But, of course, they were let go for a reason. They’ve been horrible. Although, in terms of live bodies, they are probably slightly more alive than what’s left of the Cubs emergency depth pitchers.

Ryan Shea of SI.com also recently shared a trade proposal that could be pulled off now, three months before the deadline.

Shea proposes the Cubs acquire Lance McCullers Jr. from the Houston Astros in return for the Cubs no. 29 prospect, 19-year-old infielder Fernando Cruz, who is the cousin of former Cub Starlin Castro and is regarded as one of the more toolsy prospects in the Cubs organization.

McCullers is a 32-year-old right-handed starter who has missed three full seasons due to major injury (2018, 2023, 2024) and really hasn’t been right since. He’s posted a 6.32 ERA so far this year through 6 starts and 31.1 innings.

This isn’t an impact acquisition, but it would give the Cubs another arm who can eat up innings.

Suggestions have also popped up regarding reunions with former Cubs relievers Andrew Chafin and Carl Edwards Jr., who find themselves available at the moment.

Chicago may just decide to hold on until the beginning of August and keep shuffling arms back and forth to fill the staff voids. But it certainly wouldn’t be a bad idea to explore one or a couple of the above suggested pickups. As we’re all learning, you can never have enough pitching.

The post Chicago Cubs barraged by pitching pickup suggestions appeared first on ChiCitySports.

Source: https://www.chicitysports.com/chicago-cubs-pitching-suggestions-trade-carrasco-mccullers-paddack-chafin-edwards-jed-hoyer/