Sources: Cubs Interested in Giants Starter Tyler Mahle

[Matthew Trueblood]

Image courtesy of Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

It wouldn't be a sexy pickup, but the Cubs have checked in with the Giants about right-handed starter Tyler Mahle and are "still interested" after gauging the price, a league source said. Mahle, 31, is an impending free agent who signed a one-year deal worth $10 million with San Francisco this winter. He has a 4.96 ERA in 89 innings over 17 starts, but little has changed about his profile from last year, when he had a 2.18 ERA in a similar amount of work.

Mahle was never as good as the surface-level numbers he put up with the Rangers in 2025. Indeed, he hasn't been viewed as more than a back-end starter since roughly 2022, when he was a modestly hyped trade chip for the Reds but proved unable to stay healthy after being dealt to the Twins. However, he also hasn't deserved some of the ugly results that have befallen him this year, and he'd be much better in front of the Cubs' far superior team defense. He spun six scoreless innings in his latest start, Monday against the Brewers, to boost his trade stock a bit.

One reason for the Cubs' interest in him is his contract, which they view as an opportunity to get a useful starter at a minimal cost in talent. Mahle's actual salary for this season is $7 million, but he's guaranteed a $3-million signing bonus that will be paid on January 15, according to Cot's Contracts. Incentives in his deal will earn him an extra $1.5 million if he pitches at least 36 innings the rest of the way. In total, despite nominally picking up a player whose prorated salary would be just $3.3 million for the final third of the year, the Cubs could end up paying Mahle twice that much, if they acquire him and he stays healthy the rest of the way. The Giants would like to get out of paying that money, a source familiar with their thinking said, which has led to a low asking price on Mahle as the trade deadline approaches.

Mahle is the kind of pitcher you can run out there for a playoff game, but you'll want to have a quick hook ready. He wouldn't be a game-changer for Chicago, by any means. If they can get him cheaply and add him to the rotation mix, however, the front office could feel emboldened to make bigger or more long-term-focused moves. Whether that takes the form of giving up a top prospect for rental relief ace Adrián Morejón or trading for a controllable arm (think Reid Detmers, Emerson Hancock, or even more creative possibilities like Carmen Mlodzinski, Andrew Painter or Braxton Garrett), making a move to bring in a pitcher with a high ceiling will be easier if the team feels it has set a solid floor for a team hurtling toward the top Wild Card spot in the National League.

As we've already discussed this week, the team has ownership's blessing to add payroll ahead of the deadline, although not in the form of onerous long-term deals. Mahle would be the perfect way to leverage that flexibility. He has an arsenal that suits Tommy Hottovy's predilections well and a pitch-to-contact profile that would feed the club's elite fielders. Before committing to that path, however, the team will want to see whether and how they can make a separate move to create more of a splash and upgrade the segments of the pitching staff on which they'll lean most heavily in the postseason. 

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[Bertz]

Mahle is definitely better than Rea, and probably better than Peterson.  He's also a lesser enough talent that, as you hit on here, he'd obviously be a secondary part of a bigger haul.  He'd also give us yet another guy who you'd feel good about in 2-3 inning stints in October.

I'd be pretty into this

[Jason Ross]

Mahle is a good name for the 2nd best SP and the third best player the Cubs acquire. He's cheap, both in salary and cost, and there's some underlying data there suggesting he's alright. 4.23 xFIP, 4.18 xERA. You could realistically put him in the BP or leave him off a playoff roster with the cost. 

I wouldn't let him see a playoff start and would be very disappointed if the Cubs let him do that. Maybe it's a necessity because of injuries but he'd be well behind, presumably, the other SP, Shota, Boyd, Cabrera, and Brown on that wishlist and maybe even Colin Rea, but likely not.

But I can see a case for him. 

[Tryptamine]

*yawn*

[Hawkeye7310]

The FO is doing a classic Jed Hoyer move - signal early that you’ll be in on larger names, and then pivot to fringe depth options.

[Brock Beauchamp]

6 minutes ago, Hawkeye7310 said:

The FO is doing a classic Jed Hoyer move - signal early that you’ll be in on larger names, and then pivot to fringe depth options.

Welcome to NSBB! I don't know if that's true, as no one prominent has gone off the board yet.

[Dfan25]

As a 2nd SP option he would be ok I guess . Should be better for the Cubs . With that said he should be a last resort option even as a 2nd arm added