Chicago Cubs President confirms need for trades amid rash of pitching injuries

The Chicago Cubs came into spring training with the firm belief that their arm depth would make for an upgraded pitching staff over the 2025 product, which seemed to falter and then collapse as the team pushed its way into the postseason. And, really, why wouldn’t they feel that way?

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They added emerging powerhouse starter Edward Cabrera from the Miami Marlins via trade. They picked up four veteran free agent relievers to restock a depleted bullpen. They’d be getting a full year from breakthrough star Cade Horton. Shota Imanaga was looking stronger and more confident than last season. Javier Assad was healthy and ready to go. Even lefty ace Justin Steele was due to return around mid-May or June from last year’s elbow surgery.

As a matter of fact, there was a consistent storyline in some corners of the media pointing out that the Cubs maybe had too much pitching for too few openings and should consider trading a couple of arms for some bench assets.

Well, it only took about a month to change the Cubs’ pitching outlook entirely.

In short, things have been a disaster.

Cubs pitching misfortune

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Horton is lost for the season after elbow surgery. Matthew Boyd went on the shelf and missed three starts. Relievers Daniel Palencia, Phil Maton, Hunter Harvey, Caleb Thielbar, Ethan Roberts, and Riley Martin have all gone down to injury. And now, it looks like Steele’s return will be pushed back to the more nebulous “sometime this season” after a setback in his recovery.

Chicago has had to fall back on the reserve of arms they picked up in the offseason via minor league contract. Corbin Martin, Ryan Rolison, Charlie Barnes, Vince Velasquez, and Yacksel Rios have all seen innings this year—way earlier and much more urgently than imagined.

So far, the Cubs have managed to keep winning through the misfortune. But that clearly can’t go on forever. It certainly doesn’t bode well for their offseason chances when the staff is populated with so many replacement arms.

The usually poker-faced Cubs front office is starting to show at least a bit of alarm in their acknowledgment that they will definitely have to dive into the trade market to find some quality pitching plug-ins.

Cubs will be diving into the trade market

‘‘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 on Friday.

He would also reveal that they are already pursuing trades and that, right now, they are busy “looking really consistently for small transactions.”

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

But if the Cubs are indeed serious about making this year their year, they’ll have to do something big by the August 3 trade deadline. And they’ll have to accept the reality that they may have to empty out their farm system—especially their Triple-A squad—to make it happen.

Currently, top Cubs prospects 1B Jonathon Long, SS/2B Jefferson Rojas, 3B/2B Pedro Ramirez, 2B/OF James Triantos, and OF Brett Bateman all find themselves blocked at the major league level and could be part of a trade.

Matt Shaw, who has been the subject of trade rumors since the Cubs acquired Alex Bregman in the offseason, has proven himself valuable as a super utility player off the bench and may not be made available in a deal.

Rumored Cubs trade targets have ranged from Sandy Alcantara and Joe Ryan to Kodai Senga and Luis Severino.

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