Jason Ross

One of the strengths of the 2025 Chicago Cubs lied in their bullpen, despite it being entirely redone on the fly. Finishing with a top-five ERA after May 1, the unit provided a foundation for the Cubs and gave them a good chance to close out any early lead they could secure. However, by way of how the Cubs have built their bullpens in recent years, most of their pieces will not be returning in 2026. Andrew Kittredge has already been traded, instead of having his option picked up, while Caleb Thielbar, Brad Keller, Drew Pomeranz and others are all slated to hit free agency. As the Cubs enter free agency, they will need to replace these pitchers. Some will come through internal means; perhaps Porter Hodge rediscovers his 2024 magic, or someone like Luke Little or Ben Brown pulls a Daniel Palencia and discovers improved command and control. Regardless, they will need to shop outside of the organization as well, as they look to replicate their success. Our own Matt Trueblood outlined some of the biggest options on the market the other day, and while those players would really shore things up, recent reporting from The Athletic's Sahdev Sharma suggests they may not look to go big-game hunting. The Cubs are pretty savvy when it comes to reliever acquisitions, and below are four under-the-radar pickups that I think may interest the Cubs as they look to fill out their bullpen: 1. Gregory Soto, LHP Formerly of the New York Mets in 2025 The North Siders are losing both of their best left-handed options from the 'pen and will need to find a few options from that side. In addition, one thing the Cubs' bullpen last year lacked was swing and miss. Enter Gregory Soto, a left-handed reliever who struck out over 25% of hitters he faced last year. Coming off a season where his ERA sat a tick over four, he shouldn't break the bank for any team looking to sign him. Soto kills lefties, with a 3.53 xFIP against them and just a .232 wOBA against in the 2025 season, but he struggled more against right-handed hitters. The Cubs have taken pitchers such as Colin Rea and swapped out a sinker for a four-seam fastball, and I wonder if they would look to do that with Soto as well. The 2022 campaign was the last season his ERA sat under 4.00, and it was the highest his four-seam usage has been for a while. The Cubs have also had success splitting pitches like they did with Cade Horton, who throws cutter-change to lefties and sinker-slider to righties, and perhaps just getting Soto to throw the four-seam-fastball in on right-handers is the key. This feels like a buy-low candidate that the Cubs can turn into a "two-birds-one-stone" situation by solving both their lack of left-handed pitching in the bullpen and adding swing and miss. 2. Tim Mayza, LHP Formerly of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Philadelphia Phillies in 2025 If the Cubs choose to go "under the radar" with their bullpen choices, Tim Mayza feels like a pitcher they may think they can help. Mayza offers a 94mph fastball from the left side and has had success with Toronto in 2021 and 2022, where, over the course of 155 innings, he was able to put up a 2.67 ERA and a 2.94 xFIP. The wheels fell off for the lefty in 2024 and he had a pretty serious lat injury that cost him most of the season. The lefty came back and featured for the Phillies late in the season and the velocity looked most of the way back, but he clearly struggled with rust. His walk rate was way up (courtesy of a few bad outings) and he struggled to the tune of a near-five ERA in that month. If the Cubs feel like Mayza suffered from a lack of game action and that they can get him back to his previous self, he'd very much fit into their philosophy for building a bullpen of cheap, underrated reclamation projects. They have had success with Caleb Thielbar and Drew Pomeranz, two pitchers of the same mold, and they could find another success story here. 3. Luke Weaver, RHP Formerly of the New York Yankees in 2025 Luke Weaver would help add something the Cubs need more of: strikeouts. The righty struck out 27% of opposing hitters in 2025 and the Cubs really need some more swing and miss in their bullpen. Entering his age-32 season, Weaver has established himself as a useful reliever with the Yankees and is now looking for a new home. The righty uses his fastball a lot and the Cubs were a team who enjoy having pitchers throw their four-seam fastball, so it could be a match made in heaven. Weaver has two things in his profile that may scare teams off, the first being that the righty is an extreme fly-ball pitcher, giving up under 30% of batted balls last year as "groundballs" according to FanGraphs, but this could be something mitigated by Wrigley Field and how pitcher-friendly it has played in recent seasons. The second is that his fastball was almost a full mph down last year, however this seemed to be an early season issue—it tracked upwards as the season went along. You could do a lot worse than going with the former Yankee as a seventh or eighth +inning bridge in 2025 and once again, he's unlikely to break the bank. But if you're going to pass on the Edwin Diaz, Ryan Helsley, Devin Williams tier of relievers, Weaver offers an intriguing option further down the pecking order that could stabilize the backend of a bullpen. 4.Tyler Kinley, RHP Formerly of the Atlanta Braves in 2025 Tyler Kinley isn't going to be at the top of many reliever free agent lists, but there's a really good seventh-inning arm here that is quite reminiscent of Andrew Kittredge. The reliever features a slider that grades out as a 116 on FanGraphs Stuff+ shape rating, and was a +12 in terms of run value. The pitch also generated a 33.3% whiff rate. He probably isn't as good as Kittredge on paper, but there's enough here that you can find to get excited about. Hidden for most of his career in Colorado, and entering his age-35 season, Kinley probably isn't going to break anyone's bank this offseason. There's a pretty good chance that you can acquire Kinley for one year and for less than the $9m Andrew Kittredge is slated to make in 2026 with (now) Baltimore. He probably shouldn't be the best reliever added to the bullpen, but as a secondary addition, he would make a lot of sense and would fit in well with any contending bullpen. What do you think of these four options? Do you think any of them could make sense in the 2026 bullpen? Let us know in the comments below!

When the Chicago Cubs signed Shota Imanaga two offseasons ago, the contract they agreed upon was anything but a simple five-year pact. Instead, it was a convoluted mix of team and player options, as both sides would have agency on deciding how long the contract would truly be. Finally, on Nov. 4, both sides declined their respective options, leaving Imanaga a free agent and the team a pitcher short in their rotation. If your initial reaction was of shock and confusion, that's fair. It would have been inconceivable a few months ago that the two sides would have gotten to this point and yet, here we are. There's still a chance that the Cubs will extend the qualifying offer to Imanaga and that he will accept, foregoing free agency and sticking around on a one-year, $22 million contract, but as our own Matt Trueblood reported the other day, that would seem unlikely. Ultimately, even though Imanaga was a fresh of breath air as a human, the Cubs making this choice is likely one with reason and with a plan for the future. From the Cubs' perspective, the choice was either to pick up the remaining three years and $57 million or to decline their end of this deal (thus allowing Imanaga to choose free agency). Looking at recent free agents who signed contracts in the ballpark of 3/$50m (or so) gives us an idea of what type of a pitcher gets these kinds of contracts; Yusei Kikuchi (3/$63m), Luis Severino (3/$67m), and Seth Lugo (3/$47.5m) are likely our three closest proxies over the last two years. There are a few players, such as Nathan Eovaldi, who got three years as well, but at $75m total, it's probably fair to say his contract is a little too rich compared to the others. Looking at these four starters and seeing where Imanaga stacks up gives you a decent picture as to why the Cubs may have chosen to not pick up his option. By highlighting the season each pitcher had prior to signing their contract, we can see that Imanaga performed below most of the others in almost every category (though it is fair to point out that part of the reason why his fWAR is so low compare to others is because of his 2025 injury). His FIP and xFIP are both significantly worse than the other three, which does not bode well for the future. The only other pitcher on this list who had expected data in the 4.00 range was Severino, and part of his contract was likely a premium paid to get him to accept going to play for the Sacramento Athletics. What this means is that if Imanaga were a free agent alongside those guys, he would probably have gotten less than a 3/$52m deal in the open market. That doesn't exactly mean he's toast, but he probably didn't pitch well enough in 2025 to be a slam-dunk at that price point. You could probably make an argument that with a few mechanical tweaks you could get him closer to the guy he was in 2024, but I'm not sure he's a pitcher who's really any better than a good third option in a contending teams' rotation. Another point of emphasis for the Cubs is that to improve from a 92-win team in 2025, it will not be easy. The team appears content with losing Kyle Tucker from right field, but beyond Tucker, there aren't a lot of obvious places to get better. Most of their roster is fairly entrenched with above-average starting players, but a lack of true star power. Even in the rotation, the Cubs have Rookie of the Year finalist Cade Horton, 2025 All-Star Matthew Boyd, Jameson Taillon and Justin Steele who will all be back in 2026. By allowing Imanaga to leave via free agency, they create an opening that they may be able to fill with someone who offers bigger upside. The good news is that the offseason is going to offer a lot of options for the Cubs to take a leap pitching-wise. Free agents such as Dylan Cease (of whom the Cubs have already been linked with), Michael King, Framber Valdez and Ranger Suarez will all be able to be signed by any team. It's possible that Japanese pitcher Tatsuya Imai will be posted, and could add another high-ceiling pitcher into the mix. And we can't forget that the trade market will likely see names such as Joe Ryan, Edward Cabrera, Sandy Alcantara and MacKenzie Gore pop up from time to time as possibilities. It's not fun to see Imanaga leave, but this will allow the Cubs many opportunities to get better. If you're worried about the Cubs spending the amount of money or prospects it would take to acquire one of these names, I do think the Cubs will make at least one splashy move this offseason. Remember, the team dipped into the prospect pool for Kyle Tucker already (which would allow you to think they could be players in the trade market) and they did sign shortstop Dansby Swanson to a $177 million deal a few offseasons ago. With Tucker likely netting the team a compensation pick, they will likely be fine with bidding on even the best players in the pool. In addition, it's pitchers, not hitters, who seem to be aging better (even with the threat of Tommy John always looming). Six pitchers aged 35 or older posted 3+ fWAR seasons in 2025 compared to just two hitters of the same age. The Cubs' may not have the same reservations in signing a pitcher to a long-term contract as they do with hitters. Beyond just past behavior, the Cubs should have plenty of money to throw around. FanGraphs' Roster Resource currently has the Cubs at a projected Opening Day salary of $148m, and they ended last season with an estimated payroll of $206m. Even if we ignore late free agency attempts last offseason to sign Tanner Scott or Alex Bregman (which showed a willingness to increase that number), they are almost $80m shy of last year's (admittedly poor) total. Add in the context of coming off a 92-win season, Jed Hoyer's previous comments about creating a consistent team who wins 90 games, and the extra playoff revenue, it's likely that the Cubs will spend most of that money. Spending it entirely on one-year deals and the bench is impossible. They could easily sign two starters for $45 million combined and still have $40 million left over to address the bench and bullpen. This money will certainly play into that. Ultimately, I think the Cubs' decision to not pick up Imanaga's option makes perfect sense. He might not even get a three-year, $57 million contract on the open market, and by allowing his spot to open up, the Cubs will give themselves opportunities to improve on what Imanaga is likely to provide in the future. I'll miss the Mike Imanaga II jokes, his pithy comments, and his umpire stare-downs, but in a business world, this is a business decision. And I think at the end of the day, the Cubs will go into 2026 with a better roster because of it. What do you think of the decision to let Imanaga walk? Do you think this was a good idea, or a bad one? What other pitchers would you like the Cubs to target? Let us know in the comment section below!