The hot stove season is here. As we discussed earlier this week when the Cubs signed Jacob Webb for at least one more year, it could be a fast and furious race to the lockout after Dec. 1. The Cubs are going to have some work to do this season, so it seems like now is a good time to assess the market.
For the purposes of this analysis I’m primarily referencing MLB Trade Rumors lists of free agents, although there are great lists up at The Athletic, FanGraphs, and many of your other favorite baseball
sites. Tables will show the difference in those rankings for your reference. Different lists may quibble as to whether Randy Arozarena is ranked higher than Seiya Suzuki, and they’ll certainly have different contract projections and the like, but the purpose of today isn’t to generate a Bleed Cubbie Blue list of free agents. Today’s all about assessing the market.
One other note, I made an editorial decision to focus on free agents who have played in MLB. That means this list will not include the players who are being posted from Japan and Korea this offseason. I went back and forth on this decision, but at the end of the day I’m not an international scout and can’t really evaluate where other people have ranked those players. It seemed more useful to begin this discussion in a more limited sandbox of players who have MLB experience that we’ve all seen. I do want to be clear, some of these players are ranked very highly by analysts I trust a lot. It’s just very difficult for me to add anything useful to how Cubs fans should view those players. I’ll do a deep dive on the international free agents later this offseason.
Spoiler alert: this isn’t a great free agent class for starting pitching. Don’t get me wrong, the top of the market is elite with starting pitcher Tarik Skubal, Trevor Rogers and Freddy Peralta leading the way, but it thins out quickly. Take a look at the rest of the free agent starting pitcher class below:
The first thing that jumps out about this list is that three of the pitchers in the top 10 were on the Cubs in 2026. That is probably a bit confusing at first glance since my spoiler alert was this was not a great list and everyone who watched a substantial amount of 2026 Cubs baseball knows pitching wasn’t exactly a strength.
That’s not a mistake, it’s indicative of the fact that the Cubs did everything they could to bolster their starting pitching ranks at the trade deadline and still fell just a bit short. There are very few upgrades for the Cubs on the free agent market. They can re-sign the pitchers who were on their roster at the end of 2026 and maintain the status quo, go big at the top of the free agent market to upgrade or pray for internal improvements.
That last point isn’t just hoping Justin Steele and Ben Brown return to their former selves after seasons impacted by injury. Edward Cabrera has never really put it all together and while that didn’t happen in his first season in a Cubs uniform, nothing precludes it from happening down the stretch. Additionally, y’all might remember the Cubs traded for Braxton Garrett at the deadline. Garrett is in the same “it COULD happen” bucket that Cabrera is in.
That said, the Cubs front office should treat pretty much everyone I just named as a nice to have rather than a need to have, which should draw your attention back to just how few free agent starting pitchers are available who represent improvements from guys you may be ready to move on from after their time on the Cubs roster. Let us know who your favorite free agent pitching targets are in the comments.
