Cubs Can Meet Their Trade Deadline Bullpen Needs By Looking Toward A Division Rival

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Despite obvious needs, there are quite a few things working against our clarity surrounding the Chicago Cubs' trade deadline plans. For one thing, they're an organization that famously plays things close to the vest. For another, one of the few surefire sellers at the deadline happens to reside in their own division in the form of the Cincinnati Reds.

While the Reds aren't completely out of the National League's Wild Card race, they're currently 4.5 games back of the third slot with five teams ahead of them (before you even get to one of the three teams currently in playoff position). There's no way they're buying in that position, and the team's current offensive picture makes it difficult to envision them making the sort of run over the next handful of days that would justify a pivot. As such, we can consider them among the teams most likely to sell alongside the likes of the New York Mets or Los Angeles Angels.

This is where the Cubs come in. They need help on the mound, primarily in the form of starting pitching, but also on the relief side of things. The former will take priority over the latter, but there should be an assumption that, considering their current health woes on both fronts, additions are coming to in every phase of pitching. In the bullpen specifically, they're still rolling without the likes of winter signings Phil Maton, Hoby Milner, and Hunter Harvey, in addition to Daniel Palencia. That's left them leaning heavily on the likes of Jacob Webb, Trent Thornton, and a smattering of other journeyman types.

If the Cubs and Reds were going to come together on a trade, it's difficult to see it coming to fruition for any marquee piece. The intradivision component makes that quite rare, with the Cubs likely lacking the gumption to create a larger package required to facilitate such a deal. Not that the Reds were selling any of their young hitters or starting pitchers, but even someone like Brady Singer (who has pitched much better these last two months than his full-season numbers would indicate) may be out of reach unless the Cubs overpay. Someone who would have made a logical fit, like Spencer Steer, is now likely out of the question due to injury (but even then, may have been a difficult get for Jed Hoyer and company).

However, those same limitations don't always apply to middle relief pitchers. The Reds have exactly the type of reliable bullpen arms the Cubs could covet to help bridge the gap between their thin rotation and injury-plagued leverage group.

Among Cincinnati's handful of potentially-available relief pitchers, Caleb Ferguson, Brock Burke, Pierce Johnson, and Emilio Pagán are all on short-term deals. Ferguson & Burke are free agents at season's end, with Johnson possessing a mutual option that effectively makes him the same. Of that quartet, Pagán is a name we can likely cross off the board given his $10 million player option and intensely concerning peripherals.

Ferguson, Burke, and Johnson, meanwhile, offer a bit more appeal for the Cubs. The former two are both southpaws; Ferguson has a respectable 3.86 ERA through 21 innings of work, while Burke has been the far healthier of the two in working to a sterling 2.66 ERA across roughly 50 innings. Both have out-pitched their peripherals — Ferguson has a 3.63 xERA & 4.49 FIP, while Burke is working with a 4.30 xERA & 4.28 FIP — and each presents the kind of profile the Cubs tend to like out of their relievers. Neither features high-strikeout tendencies, but they each carry a history of heavy groundball work (Ferguson, specifically, is at a 54.0 GB% in 2026) with Ferguson's sinker-cutter-four-seam & Burke's four-seam/slider combination representing an appealing mix for a relief arm.

Johnson would be a tougher sell. His ERA is up over five, with a FIP that looks very similar. He's only exceeded a 40 percent groundball rate once in the last four years, with a 14.6 homer-to-flyball rate that sits 35th among 189 relievers with at least 30 innings to their name.

Ferguson & Burke offer that left-handed appeal in addition to a performance advantage over Johnson. The Cubs are rolling with Caleb Thielbar & Ryan Rolison at present as their primary southpaws in relief. While Rolison has been a revelation, Thielbar hasn't been remotely as effective as he was in 2025. Hoby Milner's return is imminent, but it's entirely possible the Cubs want to pursue an additional lefty to further solidify their relief corps ahead of October.

Neither Ferguson nor Burke would shift the paradigm of this bullpen, but they would at least help to stabilize things. If Hoyer can accept the inherent surcharge that comes with working with a division rival this time of year, he'll find the relief corps reinforcements he's been looking for.