This social media post made last week caught my eye, and probably yours too:
Of those 13 pitchers, at least three (Cade Horton, Shelby Miller and Porter Hodge) aren’t expected to pitch at all the rest of this season. The status of Hunter Harvey,
Riley Martin and Justin Steele to throw any pitches for the 2026 Cubs is still uncertain. We also don’t know when Ben Brown will be back — and if he is this year, he could be limited to relief work.
About the six others:
- Jameson Taillon made a rehab start Sunday and might start this weekend in Cincinnati
- Edward Cabrera will need a rehab assignment, so he’s likely not back until August
- Daniel Palencia could be back by the end of July
- Phil Maton, same, perhaps back by the end of this month
- Ethan Roberts’ timeline for return is unclear, though he officially began a rehab assignment on Friday
- Hoby Milner should return from having his appendix removed sometime in August
(All the info above is from Jordan Bastian’s Cubs Beat newsletter.)
So there are pitching reinforcements returning from injury. And the Cubs still could make a deal for a starter, a reliever, or both.
What I wanted to talk about here are the guys replacing all the pitchers listed above.
Jed Hoyer traded for David Peterson, who had his moments in New York but apparently wore out his welcome. He’s had one good start and one bad one for the Cubs so the proverbial verdict is still out on him. Some of the other pitchers who have put up innings for the Cubs this year, woof. Bryse Wilson? Jordan Wicks? Corbin Martin? I mean, yes, each of those guys had at least one good game for the Cubs but my question here is: Why don’t the Cubs have the parade of 98 mile per hour guys that seem to be coming out of every other team’s system? There don’t seem to be relievers like that in the Cubs organization.
Except… there were some guys like that, pitchers the Cubs let go for nothing. I’m thinking specifically of Trevor Megill and Jeremiah Estrada, pitchers who can throw 98+ consistently and have had success elsewhere. Megill has been the Brewers closer (mostly, though was briefly demoted this year) for most of the last three seasons and has posted a 2.93 ERA and 1.110 WHIP in 165 games in Milwaukee, with 206 strikeouts in 163 innings. Estrada has made 160 appearances for the Padres over the last three years with a 3.26 ERA and 1.119 WHIP, and 225 strikeouts in 154.2 innings.
Both those pitchers were let go for nothing. So was Jason Adam, who was non-tendered after 2021 because he was reportedly going to get $900,000 in arbitration. Then the Cubs signed Daniel Norris for more than that, and Norris was released after posting a 6.90 ERA in 27 games. Meanwhile, Adam has posted a 2.12 ERA and 0.965 WHIP in 298 games for the Rays and Padres since then, with 317 strikeouts in 289 innings.
Caleb Kilian is another example. The Cubs tried him as a starter and he failed at that. During Spring Training 2025 he was throwing 98 miles per hour and likely would have made the Opening Day bullpen last year if he hadn’t been injured. He pitched in a handful of games at Iowa after returning from the injury and the results weren’t good and he was let go after the season. Now he’s a useful reliever for the Giants, with a four-seamer averaging 97.
I could probably come up with some more examples of this sort of thing, but you get the idea. The Cubs either don’t evaluate pitchers properly, or a perceived money issue gets in the way of keeping a useful pitcher like Adam.
Instead, the Cubs sign retread after retread, trying to get pitchers to re-capture something they had three or five years in the past.
Next up on that list will be Liam Hendriks and Aaron Bummer, both now toiling for Triple-A Iowa. Hendriks, who is 37, was last effective in the big leagues in 2022. Then he missed most of 2023 and all of 2024 with Tommy John surgery, then hip issues shortened his year with the Red Sox last year. He has made three appearances in the Cubs system, one in the Arizona Complex League and two for Triple-A Iowa, all scoreless. Could he be effective? Maybe, but it would have been smarter to keep Hendriks in December 2013, when the Cubs claimed him on waivers from the Twins. Ten days later the Cubs tried to sneak him through waivers and he got claimed by the Orioles, and then, of course, had multiple successful seasons elsewhere.
As for Bummer, he had two pretty good years for the Braves in 2024 and 2025, but a lower K rate, a higher walk rate and a 7.63 ERA in 19 games this year got him released by Atlanta in May. The Cubs signed him and he’s made four appearances in the system, two scoreless ones in the complex league, two others at Iowa with a 4.50 ERA. I suppose we’ll see him in the Cubs bullpen at some point this year.
And at some point, I hope Cubs pitching development will focus more on drafting and developing guys who can throw the 98+ fastballs that are becoming de rigeur in baseball today. Otherwise this beleaguered pitching staff will keep falling behind.
