5 Impending Free Agents Cubs Fans Should Watch Closely During Championship Series

[Matthew Trueblood]

Image courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images

After a disappointing end to a roller-coaster season, the Cubs head into the offseason with lots of money to spend. Arguably, they have needs even deeper than their pockets, but there's no question that they'll have deep pockets. In veterans Ian Happ, Seiya Suzuki, Jameson Taillon, Shota Imanaga, Matthew Boyd and Carson Kelly, they have over $100 million from their Opening Day roster coming off the books, even before accounting for smaller expiring deals and the money they picked up (only to put back down) by acquiring rental players at the trade deadline.

That should make Jed Hoyer's front office an aggressive mover over the month-and-a-half between now and the nigh-inevitable lockout. They've already had almost a fortnight to scout and evaluate some of the players on whom they might splurge next month. Here are five intriguing potential targets who are still playing meaningful games, even as the postseason has whittled away all but the four best teams in the sport.

Jake Bauers, 1B/OF, Brewers

After enjoying a partial breakout in 2025, Bauers overhauled his offseason regimen and came into this season with better functional strength—and with an altered stance, and with a deeper contact point. The sum of those seemingly small changes was anything but small, as Bauers hit .266/.389/.484, setting career highs in almost everything. His 26 homers paced the division-champion Brewers, and he hung in well against left-handed pitchers in his first real chance to be an everyday player since before the pandemic.

Though he just turned 31, Bauers is more athletic than the average first baseman, and has even spent substantial time in the outfield as recently as this year. He would fit the Cubs in four important ways:

1. He's temperamentally perfect for their clubhouse. He's excellent with the Brewers in that regard, and would fit seamlessly with Dansby Swanson, Nico Hoerner, Alex Bregman and Pete Crow-Armstrong.
2. His power and patience would give the team the reliable lefty slug they missed for much of 2026. He has elite bat speed. Unlike Michael Busch, he doesn't need everything to go right on a given swing to produce a hard-hit ball, or even a homer.
3. Speaking of Busch, Bauers (who is only about two years his senior) would give the Cubs insurance against another disappointing season by their cost-controlled first baseman. He would enter the season mainly as the designated hitter, but could easily step into the first-base job if Busch's struggles carry over.
4. While DH might be his primary position on the 2027 Cubs, in addition to first base, Bauers would be a fine part-time left fielder. He's not a great defender out there, but neither is anyone else the team is likely to find. As a one-year patch while the team hopes for Ethan Conrad or Josiah Hartshorn to further progress and take over a job in 2028, Bauers wouldn't be half-bad. 

Improbable though it would have seemed even a year ago, Bauers is almost certain to get a multi-year deal with an eight-figure annual salary. That's not as intimidating as it sounds, though, given the modern player marketplace. Watch him closely as the Brewers take on the Dodgers; he does a lot of things well.

Foster Griffin, LHP, Guardians

Can I interest you in another 31-year-old journeyman who suddenly became a hot commodity this year? Griffin spent multiple years pitching in Japan, before coming back to the United States this season on a one-year deal with the Nationals. Last winter, teams had interest in him mostly as a reliever, but he proved himself as a remade starter in 2026. At the trade deadline, the Guardians scooped him up.

On the surface, Griffin looks like exactly the kind of pitcher of whom the Cubs need fewer, not more. He throws just 92 miles per hour with his four-seamer, on average, and even that oversells him as a power guy: he leans more on a cutter that's more like 89. He has eight pitches, and he throws the kitchen sink at righty batters. It sounds a bit like a generic junkballer.

It's not, though. He's more than that. In his start against the White Sox in the ALDS, Griffin was pulled after just 2 2/3 innings, but he racked up seven strikeouts. He's so tough on lefties that he sees fairly few of them, but his sweeper is a bat-misser against them. Against righties, he can use his cutter and two flavors of changeup to mess with timing and induce weak contact, and he gets enough whiffs and throws enough strikes to win. Griffin will get a multi-year deal somewhere this winter, but it won't be for huge money. He's a younger and healthier spin on, for instance, Boyd, which makes him an interesting secondary starting pitching target.

Freddy Peralta, RHP, Rays

You don't need as much of a primer on Peralta. He was a burr in the Cubs' saddle for a long time while with the Brewers, but his few months as a Met were less than fruitful. It looked like his chances to score a big free-agent payday were slipping away, but after the Rays acquired him just ahead of the trade deadline, they fixed him. Peralta finished with a 3.25 ERA in 10 starts for Tampa, and carried over his success in a start against the Yankees in the ALDS. 

Without the qualifying offer attached, Peralta becomes a tremendous fit for the Cubs. His durability and athleticism are appealing; so is his ebullience off the field. He and Craig Counsell have a great relationship. The front office has liked Peralta from (not-so-)afar for a long time; this winter could be the chance for the two sides to finally get together.

Tarik Skubal, LHP, Dodgers

It's just not Hoyer's style. It'll be enormously expensive, and if the Dodgers do manage a threepeat, it might be enormously difficult just to talk him out of leaving Hollywood. The Cubs should try, anyway. Skubal is the best starting pitcher who has been or will be available without the qualifying offer attached to him for some time. Since the Cubs were luxury-tax payers this season, they face a stiffer penalty than in the past if they sign a player who does have the QO on them. The decision shouldn't really come down to such things, anyway, but if it did, that would be another reason to go hard for Skubal, rather than settling for (say) Orioles southpaw Trevor Rogers. It's time for the Cubs to break more of their self-imposed rules. Skubal should be their white whale this winter. Even in a loss in Game 1 of the NLCS, it was easy to see why.

Alex Vesia, LHP, Dodgers

Speaking of pitchers who appeared for the visitors as they lost to the Brewers in the NLCS opener, Vesia was superb. In fact, he's been subtly excellent almost his entire career, with a 2.87 ERA in 372 career appearances. He was even better (2.64 ERA) this season, on the surface, though he struggled with walks and got a bit lucky to maintain such pretty surface-level numbers.

Vesia has the missing ingredient for the Cubs' pen, to be sure. He boasts a career strikeout rate over 32%. Put him alongside intriguing but not yet proven options Ryan Rolison and Riley Martin, and the Cubs would have a formidable lefty trio in relief. It's a small potential move, but it could be an important one. Vesia is almost guaranteed to pitch again before the NLCS is over, so the team isn't quite out of chances to see how he can neutralize lefty bats, just yet.

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[Jon KK]

I expected to see Peralta on this list, he'd be a good fit. What about Michael King as a cheaper alternative to Skubal?
Do you want to try to bring back any of Peterson/Holmes/Gausman?

[Matthew Trueblood]

19 minutes ago, Jon KK said:

I expected to see Peralta on this list, he'd be a good fit. What about Michael King as a cheaper alternative to Skubal?
Do you want to try to bring back any of Peterson/Holmes/Gausman?

I don't think going for a cheaper alternative is a good thing; they should make a huge offer for Skubal! But if (and, really, when, I think) he signs elsewhere, yes, I'm in on King. He wasn't in this piece just because I focused on guys whose teams made the LCS round.

I think Gausman is cooked, or cooked-adjacent. Peterson and Holmes each make some kind of sense, but to know which I would want to see return, I need to know which way the Cubs lean when (imo: inevitably) they fire some people and shake up the pitching department, y'know?

[Bertz]

Freddy Peralta was kind of trash with the Rays too, he just had a prettier ERA.

- His groundball rate went down to 36%

- His K rate dropped to 19.7%

- His HR/FB rate went way down, which explains a lot.  That said to whatever extent that's a skill pitchers have (I think very little, but we'll set that aside) this was clearly just luck as his barrel rate against actually went up with the Rays

- He got a little more chase and that led to a little more soft contact, but not enough to explain more than a run and a half of ERA

He basically got some positive regression on homeruns and sequencing and stopped playing in front of a clownshow infield defense.

I like Peralta and think he's a good target this winter.  This kind of decline without losing anything off the fastball is generally fixable.  But he is very much still a reclamation project.  The Rays have yet to fix anything.

[Matthew Trueblood]

9 minutes ago, Bertz said:

Freddy Peralta was kind of trash with the Rays too, he just had a prettier ERA.

- His groundball rate went down to 36%

- His K rate dropped to 19.7%

- His HR/FB rate went way down, which explains a lot.  That said to whatever extent that's a skill pitchers have (I think very little, but we'll set that aside) this was clearly just luck as his barrel rate against actually went up with the Rays

- He got a little more chase and that led to a little more soft contact, but not enough to explain more than a run and a half of ERA

He basically got some positive regression on homeruns and sequencing and stopped playing in front of a clownshow infield defense.

I like Peralta and think he's a good target this winter.  This kind of decline without losing anything off the fastball is generally fixable.  But he is very much still a reclamation project.  The Rays have yet to fix anything.

I should have written that more completely/clearly. IMO, they fixed him, but not right away, and the numbers are distorted by the time it took them to get him turned around. He *had* lost velo on his fastball, then got it back. Started elevating it again, too. Regained feel for his sweeper. Stuff and mechanics both improved significantly beginning in late August. 

[mk49]

Yeah, re-sign Peterson to me is one of the top priorities.  Holmes is good, though he'd be a lot more expensive, which will limit other signings.  Gausman?  I don't want him back.  He was already bad for 2 months, before he came over to Chicago.  I think Peralta could be good again.  I prefer King or betting on Taira, though.  I don't see how the Cubs get Skubal.  The Dodgers might offer him 5yr/$300m, which the Cubs won't match for sure.  But, what do I know?  I didn't think we were getting Bregman.😄

 

Edited 1 hour ago by mk49

[Victor Reichman]

Sorry, I wouldn't sign any of the above. Peralta is declining. Bauers is not that much of an upgrade over Busch who is terrific on defense. And no to mega millions for Skubal.

We hopefully will be getting Steele, Horton and Brown back. The problem is with relievers who are mostly hit and miss except for the elite. Remember, we had McGill. I would keep Assad as he is inexpensive and IMO very underrated.