After wrapping up a series against the White Sox on Thursday, the Yankees don’t have to go very far to open up their next matchup. Starting later today, the Yankees are making their across town to the north side of Chicago, as they’ll now open up a three-game set against the Cubs.
The Cubs come into this weekend’s set a ways back of the first place Brewers in the NL Central. However, that’s more a reflection of how good Milwaukee has been as before Thursday, they had the exact same record as the Yankees.
Chicago’s pitching has been a bit injury hit and has had its struggles, but they boast a powerful offense, led by likely current NL MVP leader Pete Crow-Armstrong. Besides PCA, they have seven other position players who have a better than average OPS+ on the season. In terms of runs per game, only the Nationals have been better this season.
While the Yankee pitchers will have their hands full this weekend, let’s take a look at the expected pitching matchups in general for the next couple days.
Friday: Will Warren vs. Shota Imanaga (2:20 pm ET)
While they’re likely both headed to the bullpen in the long term of this season, Warren is quickly losing ground to Ryan Weathers for who will stay in the rotation upon Carlos Rodón’s return. Whereas Weathers has been legitimately good in three of his last four outings, Warren has a 7.50 ERA and a 6.78 FIP in July. That even includes that one-off bullpen appearance where he didn’t allow a run. His start to the season was good enough that there’s still probably something to him being a rotation piece, but his days there in 2026 may be numbered.
With the aforementioned injuries and struggles, Imanaga is basically the Cubs’ ace by default. He hasn’t been bad by any means, but with a 3.72 ERA (110 ERA+) and a 4.40 FIP, he also hasn’t been spectacular. That being said, he’s coming off two straight scoreless outings, as he kept the Pirates and Twins off the scoreboard for six and seven innings respectively in his last two games.
Saturday: Max Fried vs. David Peterson (7:15 pm ET)
In his first start since coming off the IL, Fried was excellent against the Pirates. Last time out, he allowed three first inning runs to the White Sox. Now, you could maybe argue that there were some defensive plays that should’ve been made that weren’t that cost him, but he for sure wasn’t sharp. In addition to a good game, another thing to look out for regarding Fried will be how deep into the game he goes considering he’s still probably stretching out a bit after the IL stint.
The Cubs picked up the former Met Peterson in a trade back in June as they simply needed another arm to help fill in after their injury losses. Peterson hadn’t been particularly good before the trade (6.09 ERA with the Mets), and he hasn’t been great since it, with a 5.06 ERA and a 5.14 FIP with Chicago. However, he’s been much better in his last couple appearances, allowing three earned runs total in 16.1 innings over his last three games.
Sunday: Gerrit Cole vs. Colin Rea (2:20 pm ET)
Cole will get the ball in the series finale. While his initial starts since coming back from Tommy John were excellent, Cole was very iffy over the course of June. However in July, he looked very much like former AL Cy Young Award winner Gerrit Cole. In July he had a 2.97 ERA and a 2.65 FIP, while also striking out 39 batters in 30.1 innings and walking just four.
The veteran Rea was very solid for Chicago last season, but he’s been below average to this point this year. However, much like the other two, he’s been better lately. Dating back to a scoreless outing on June 20th, Rea has posted a 3.35 ERA in 37.2 innings since. His FIP over that time is more in line with his season total, suggesting that run might not be as good as it seems.
