Chicago Cubs should explore this veteran Atlanta Braves castoff

The Chicago Cubs are as close to rock-bottom as possible at this point of the season. They’ve lost 21 of their last 28 games and have fallen all the way to fourth place in the NL Central Division.

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There are many focuses for blame, ranging from the front office to the manager to individual players on the team. The reality, though, is that everybody owns this mess and getting at the solution will take some time, effort, and serious team reflection.

But if one were forced to blame one key element for things going sideways in 2026, it would have to be the starting pitching.

The Cubs started the season boasting of their depth and their reserve of at least nine qualified arms to fill the five rotation spots—Cade Horton, Matthew Boyd, Edward Cabrera, Jameson Taillon, Shota Imanaga, Justin Steele, Colin Rea, Ben Brown, and Javier Assad.

Little by little, however, that depth has been whittled away.

The besieged Cubs rotation

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Horton went down to a season-ending elbow injury in just his second start of the year. Steele’s comeback from elbow surgery last year has suffered a setback. Boyd is coming back from his second stint on the IL. Cabrera just came back from the IL as well. And now Taillon has been placed on the shelf, not expected back until after the All-Star break.

Add to that the fact that nobody from the Cubs’ list of starters—other then Brown—has executed consistently well and, well, you get what we have right now on the North Side.

With about two months still to go before the trade deadline and a rotation still suffering stress and strain—with nobody really available for a call-up from the minors—the team has to come up with some instant, on-the-spot backup starting pitching options. And the only way to do that is via the waiver wire.

A solution cast off by the Braves?

The Atlanta Braves recently DFA’d someone who the Cubs might be wise to look into, given their situation.

Carlos Carrasco was cut loose by the first place Braves on Wednesday after limited use this season. The 39-year-old 17-year MLB veteran has posted a 3.00 ERA in just 9 innings over 5 appearances for Atlanta after notching a 3.30 ERA in 30 inning over 6 starts at the Triple-A Braves affiliate.

Carrasco, who’s widely regarded as a valuable clubhouse presence, has a 4.22 career ERA over his time with the Braves, Yankees, Guardians, and Mets. He hasn’t been a consistent and quality starting rotation presence since his 15-7, 3.97 ERA season with the Mets in 2022, but he’s looked solid enough overall this season to warrant a look—especially for a Cubs team bordering on desperation.

Chicago has indeed been watching the waiver wire as their pitching has begun to crumble. As the season rolls on, they’ve already picked up Christian Roa, Luis Peralta, Liam Hendricks, Ty Blach, Doug Nikhazy, Andrew Wantz and Eduarniel Nuñez as stockpile arms, along with several others acquired during the offseason.

Carrasco might be closer to a sure thing asset as anyone else the team has added of late.

The Cubs may also want to look at former Cub Keegan Thompson, who was recently DFA’d by the Rockies, as well as the Blue Jays’ Yariel Rodriguez.

At this point, a roll of the dice on a reclamation project is about as close as the Cubs are going to get to the cavalry riding in to save the year.

The post Chicago Cubs should explore this veteran Atlanta Braves castoff appeared first on ChiCitySports.

Source: https://www.chicitysports.com/chicago-cubs-atlanta-braves-carlos-carrasco-acquire/