Cubs Designate Jameson Taillon for Assignment, Starting a Trade Countdown

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The Chicago Cubs designated Jameson Taillon for assignment Monday, the team announced. Righty reliever Andrew Wantz, signed last month after being released by the Tampa Bay Rays, will be promoted to take Taillon's place on the active roster. It's a sad but necessary end to the four-year Cubs tenure of Taillon, 34, who had a 5.92 ERA in 15 starts with the team this year.

Wantz, 30, is a fringe arm who made seven appearances as a quasi-starter with the Triple-A Iowa Cubs before being called up, with a 4.32 ERA. He's ready to give the team length, but is even less of a viable starter than Taillon was. He's here strictly as a fresh arm; the team will replace him very soon.

The timing of this move makes it fascinating, even though it was dictated by logistics as much as by any specific plan to complete an imminent deal. According to a source close to the team, no trade to immediately replace Taillon is close to completion, but it's clear that a spot is now open in the rotation. By Friday (rather than next Monday, Aug. 3, when the trade deadline hits), the team needs a new starter. They could always patch things together with a bullpen game, but ideally, at this point, the team will move within the next 72 hours to acquire a starter to reinforce their rotation.

David Peterson, Colin Rea, Matthew Boyd and Shota Imanaga are slated to start the four games the team will play in St. Louis to start this week. Theoretically, the team could hold back Javier Assad (who pitched three innings Saturday night) and have him ready to start Friday, but that would mean operating with a seven-man bullpen during a series that will be emotionally draining and sweltering—and, again, on the front end of a stretch of 17 games between off days. Realistically, the team is likely to need Assad in one of the two latter games against the Cardinals.

The trade deadline will arrive just in time to refresh a pitching staff that has been stretched to its breaking point by injuries and poor performances all season. Jed Hoyer and Carter Hawkins had to make this move now, but that they were willing to do so speaks volumes about their negotiating position heading into the final week before the deadline: Everyone knows they need pitchers. Everyone knows they need multiple pitchers. There's no leverage, and there's little depth on the farm, so the team will simply have to pay up for the help they require. This transaction is an acknowledgment of that.

Though his contract won't be well-remembered, there were stretches during which Taillon was a key part of Cubs teams fighting to keep their heads above water. Since the middle of last season, he has largely been compromised, pitching through various injuries as much as possible but often not even being able to. He had a 4.21 ERA in 525 1/3 innings with Chicago, including a good year in 2024 and solid work before the injuries began pulling him apart in 2025. One of the most well-liked players in the game, he leaves a void to fill in the clubhouse, but the team is full of leaders and positive presences. They'll have to rally to one another and embrace the accountability to results implied by this loss. Taillon's contract expires at the end of the World Series, so he wasn't going to be part of the team beyond this year, anyway.

The clock is ticking, and the Cubs' position is clear. They have glaring weaknesses and huge needs—and an equally massive opportunity to win the first Wild Card spot again and host another playoff series at Wrigley Field. By letting Taillon go Monday, they all but announced that they'll be fighting to secure that position down the stretch. It won't be cheap, but multiple additions lie close ahead.