BREAKING: Cubs to Acquire Starting Pitcher Edward Cabrera in Trade with Marlins

[Matthew Trueblood]

Image courtesy of © Mandy Mertens-Imagn Images

The Chicago Cubs have agreed to a trade to acquire right-handed pitcher Edward Cabrera from the Miami Marlins, a source confirmed to North Side Baseball Wednesday. Michael Cerami of Bleacher Nation had the news first, on Twitter.

Owen Caissie will be part of the package going to the Marlins, who nearly acquired him from Chicago last winter in exchange for lefty starter Jesús Luzardo.

Cabrera, who will turn 28 in April, comes with three years of team control, and is eligible for arbitration this winter. He made 26 starts and posted a 3.53 ERA in 2025, the best and healthiest season of his career. Long plagued by shoulder injuries, he lowered his arm slot, resulting not only in more durability (though he dealt with elbow issues, instead) but better control. 

Without missing fewer bats (his strikeout rate held steady at 25.8%), Cabrera used his altered delivery to reduce his walk rate from a career mark of 13.3% before 2025 to 8.3%. He boasts two fastballs that sit in the upper 90s, but is one of the least fastball-reliant starting pitchers in baseball. Instead, he leans heavily on his plus changeup and curveball, also mixing in a slider and an occasional sweeper. The changeup is famous for clocking in as high as 96 miles per hour, thrown with ferocity but achieving great fade and tumble.

Given that profile, it's clear what Cabrera adds that the Cubs had previously lacked: a right-handed power arm at the front end of the rotation, to complement Cade Horton. He misses bats with multiple offerings and could still have more in the tank, as he finds a rhythm by staying healthy more consistently. The Cubs could have him throw the heater more than Miami did, but he's a different type of hurler than they have relied on over the last decade—and that's a good thing.

For the Marlins, the key piece of the deal is Caissie, who had been slated to take over a significant role in the Cubs' lineup for 2026. Long on raw power and more athletic than his frame suggests, Caissie nonetheless comes with concerns about his ability to actualize that pop (he rarely pulled the ball in the air, for instance, even in a second tour of Triple A in 2025) and about strikeouts. His stock dipped slightly league-wide despite good numbers on the farm last year, and the Cubs entertained trading him in July, when the Marlins were also interested in acquiring him. A source indicated that there will be two other pieces going to Miami to complete the trade.

With Caissie heading to Miami, the Cubs are left with an even more glaring set of questions about their offense for 2026. That was already an area of focus for them for the balance of the offseason, and it now becomes their top priority. Cabrera is projected to earn $3.7 million this season, far less than the team would have paid to land either Tatsuya Imai or one of the top domestic starting pitchers via free agency. That leaves them with plenty of spending power. Seiya Suzuki can move back to right field in the absence of Caissie, but that puts extra pressure on the bat of prospective DH Moisés Ballesteros. The Cubs are in contact with the agents for both Alex Bregman and Bo Bichette, who would lessen that pressure by becoming infield options who also spend time at DH, and who could anchor the team's lineup for multiple seasons. Reunions with Kyle Tucker or Cody Bellinger remain unlikely, a source said.

Cabrera gives the Cubs one of the best starting rotations in the National League, pending the possibility that they trade one of their incumbent options. (Indeed, they could include one such player in this very deal; Miami has had interest in Javier Assad in the past.) This is a momentous deal, and an exceptionally aggressive one by Jed Hoyer and company. It's also likely to be the first of a multi-transaction move to make the team a more serious challenger to the NL Central hegemons in Milwaukee.

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