Chicago Cubs: Jed Hoyer under immense pressure to address team needs, per insider

The Chicago Cubs are an open book when it comes to their primary need for what they hope to be a second-half playoff push. They need starting pitching.

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Currently, the Cubs rotation is anchored by the surprising Ben Brown and the reemergence of recent Triple-A call-up Javier Assad. That’s not an ideal position to be in and it’s absolutely not what anyone expected to see at the start of the season.

However, injury has decimated the pitching staff and inconsistency has hobbled those not on the shelf.

If Chicago aims to make the playoffs and make a competitive run through the postseason, they need to shore up their rotation.

But the team is also staring down the reality that they may need to do a rotation rebuild for beyond this year as three of their starting pitchers—Matthew Boyd, Shota Imanaga, and Jameson Taillon—may be lost to free agency at the end of this season.

So, it’s not as easy as acquiring a rental pitcher to fulfill their needs for this year. They need to fulfill their needs as well as keep one eye on the future.

Under pressure

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Given the push to win now with this team, ESPN’s Buster Olney recently ranked Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer as one of the MLB execs currently most under pressure.

Per Olney:

“No contender has a more clear-cut need than the Cubs, whose rotation is missing Cade Horton, Justin Steele and Matthew Boyd because of injuries. They need a starting pitcher, and the best fit would be someone who generates a lot of swing-and-miss, as the team ranks near the bottom in average velocity and strikeout rate. It’s a difficult position for any team with championship aspirations in this era.

However, the Cubs might be lucky in that regard at this year’s deadline: There could be more starting pitchers available than any other position. Some of the pitchers who could be moved: Skubal, Peralta, Robbie Ray, Joe Ryan, Sandy Alcantara and others.”

Winning while rebuilding

Then, of course, one must throw in the extra pressure of building for the future as they secure the present. There will be a solid Cubs core coming back, but they could realistically lose all, or most, of the veterans with contracts set to expire—Boyd, Imanaga, Taillon, Ian Happ, Seiya Suzuki, Carson Kelly.

When it comes to the pitching, specifically, an ideal scenario would see Chicago picking up a quality starting pitcher before the August 3 trade deadline, who also has team-controlled years beyond 2026. The Marlins’ Sandy Alcantara and the Twins’ Joe Ryan, for example, would give the Cubs at least one more season of work before making their run for free agency.

The good thing is that there should be a number of quality starters on the market before the deadline. The bad news, though, is that the Cubs seem to be stuck in that middle area of being just good enough to contend, but not stacked enough to rate as a guaranteed championship contender.

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