With the holiday season over, Major League Baseball gets back in the swing of things this month with several deadlines coming up, which will be followed by the opening of spring camps next month. We’re only 46 days away from the Cubs Spring Training opener against the White Sox, Feb. 20 at Sloan Park.
So, baseball soon!
In the meantime, this Thursday is the deadline for arbitration-eligible players and teams to exchange salary figures, if they have not come to a salary agreement before then.
The Cubs
had four arb-eligible players when the 2025 season ended. Two of them, Eli Morgan and Reese McGuire, were non-tendered and became free agents. Neither has signed with another team as of now.
That leaves just two Cubs who are arb-eligible and who have not yet signed: Justin Steele and Javier Assad.
Steele, of course, missed almost all of 2025 (after just four starts) with Tommy John surgery. He’s not likely to pitch in a MLB game until sometime in May, perhaps even early June.
MLB Trade Rumors’ arbitration projections have Steele making $6.55 million in 2026. Probably not coincidentally, that’s exactly what Steele made last year. Had Steele pitched a full year in 2025 and produced a year comparable to (say) his 2023 season, that figure would have likely doubled. This seems a fair figure for someone who might miss a third of this year, then (hopefully) come back and be productive.
Steele is a free agent after 2027. It’s not impossible that the Cubs try to work out some sort of two-year deal with him.
Assad also missed quite a bit of 2025 with an oblique injury, which happened in Spring Training and was aggravated during rehab from it. His production in eight games (seven starts) after he returned was reasonably close to his usual level of performance before the injury. He made $793,250 in 2025, and 2026 is his first arb-eligible season. MLBTR projected Assad for a $1.9 million salary and that seems reasonable.
Historically, the Cubs have not liked going to arb hearings, so I’d expect them to settle with these players before Thursday, or if not, then before a hearing. This year’s arb hearings will be held between Jan. 26 and Feb. 13. The Cubs haven’t had a player go to an arb hearing since Pedro Strop in 2015.
We’ll find out more by Thursday. As always, we await developments.
