Chicago Cubs’ unwillingness to pay for pitching brought them to this disaster

The Chicago Cubs suffered another pitching setback in Sunday’s 2-1 extra innings loss to the San Francisco Giants at Wrigley Field.

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In the second inning of his start, Jameson Taillon felt some discomfort on the mound and signaled for the trainer to come out. He would then be removed from the game after just 35 pitches. Later, it was revealed that he had suffered a left hamstring injury that would require a stint on the IL.

Honestly, though, the Cubs aren’t losing a whole lot with Taillon gone. The veteran has posted a 5.19 ERA through thirteen starts and was well on his way to getting batted around by the Giants (two hits, two walks, one earned run in one full inning) before his injury.

But, at the very least, he was a live body. And the Cubs don’t have that many live starting pitching bodies left.

The recently recalled Javier Assad came in and gave Chicago 6.1 one-hit shutout innings—which was a silver lining deep inside a dark cloud—but that doesn’t change the fact that the battered and strained starting rotation is now operating fully without a net.

The Cubs refused to pay for top pitching

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This would not have been an issue if the Cubs weren’t so internally stuck on not paying a premium—or even a partial premium—for pitching.

During the offseason, the Cubs made a partial pass at Dylan Cease before demurring. Cease has been a lights-out stud for the Blue Jays. Rumored targets Michael King and Nathan Eovaldi are also doing well with their respective teams. Nick Martinez—who was snatched up by the Rays on a budget $13 million contract—has been a killer. Even Foster Griffin—up for grabs at a cheap price after returning from Japan—is posting better numbers than anybody but Ben Brown in Chicago’s rotation.

The Cubs didn’t even make a serious play at free agent holdout Lucas Giolito after injuries started piling up and they knew they’d need the reinforcement. Giolito hasn’t been great for the Padres, but he’s been doing better than Taillon and Shota Imanaga.

The pitching was there to be had. The Cubs just decided not to have it. Their unusually bold trade with the Miami Marlins for Edward Cabrera was going to have to suffice.

Cubs 2026 rotation was a house of cards

Coming into this 2026 season, the Cubs were actually patting themselves on the back for the starting pitching depth they had built. They may not have had a true, proven superstar, but they had a lot of solid cogs to a machine they believed capable of making a deep playoff run.

The front five consisted of Matthew Boyd, Cade Horton, the newly acquired Cabrera, Imanaga, and Taillon, with the returning Justin Steele as an ace in the hole, due back from 2025 elbow surgery in May or June. After that, they had Colin Rea, Javier Assad, and Ben Brown as backup options.

But Boyd, Horton, Cabrera, and Steele all had significant injury concerns (which became realities). Imanaga was coming off a troubling 2025. Taillon’s velocity was way down in spring training and he was getting swatted.

Now, after waves of injury, the front five consists of a returning Boyd and Cabrera, Brown (a positive revelation), Rea, and Assad, with no backup behind them and no hope of a rotation boost until the trade deadline.

The writing was on the wall that bad things were possible for this season. But instead of making the bold move for a big ticket starting pitcher, the Cubs opted for “safe” acquisition Alex Bregman—a move which hasn’t paid dividends at all so far.

Until Cubs president Jed Hoyer and the front office starts rolling the dice on arms, this team will always be crossing fingers and hoping for the best when it comes to pitching. And, as a result, they’ll always be on the outside of a championship picture looking in.

The post Chicago Cubs’ unwillingness to pay for pitching brought them to this disaster appeared first on ChiCitySports.

Source: https://www.chicitysports.com/chicago-cubs-unwillingness-pay-for-pitching-disaster-cease-boyd-horton-taillon-hoyer/