The Chicago Cubs have been pushing to acquire left-handed pitcher Jesús Luzardo from the Miami Marlins, according to league sources briefed on the discussions. The interest in Luzardo, previously reported by USA Today and 670 The Score, is further confirmation that Jed Hoyer’s front office has not stopped looking to make significant additions to a pitching staff that already has five starters.
The Cubs know they need more than a five-man rotation to get through a 162-game schedule and multiple playoff rounds. October baseball at Wrigley Field has to be the expectation after the win-now trade for Kyle Tucker, who can become a free agent after this upcoming season and use Juan Soto’s megadeal as a comp.
What’s next? Hoyer and Tucker are scheduled for video conferences Tuesday with the Chicago media. Until then, here are four early takeaways on the Cubs’ offseason maneuverings:
Kyle Tucker is the star this team needed
During Hoyer’s methodical overhaul of baseball operations, the team president has quibbled with the definition of a “star” and a “rebuild.” A roster stocked with good-but-not-great players produced 83 wins in each of the past two seasons. And the front office operated as a buyer and a seller at this year’s trade deadline.
Tucker — a low-key personality and one of the most underrated players in the game — quietly put up huge numbers for the Houston Astros. Hoyer didn’t make this move for PR reasons; the longtime executive believes a team’s entertainment value comes from winning. Falling short again this year was less about star power and more about “consolidation of wins.”
“It’s about production,” Hoyer said. “You need significant production out of individual players. That’s how I look at it. I don’t think baseball is the NBA. You can’t just put the ball in the guy’s hand at the end of the game and say, ‘That’s our star. He’s going to take over.’
“It wasn’t that we didn’t have stars. We didn’t have enough consolidation of wins last year. We had a number of players that had good years, but no one had a five-plus-win season that really helped us. When people say we had stars in 2015 and 2016, did we have stars or did we have players that were five-, six-, seven-win players?”
Semantics aside, Tucker’s arrival ends that narrative around the Cubs (at least for now). Perhaps Tucker isn’t viewed as a universal superstar, but that perception would just validate Hoyer’s point. If Tucker isn’t a star, then that baseball term has no meaning.
With the Kyle Tucker trade, the Cubs are back in the mix: ‘About time’
Matthew Boyd scouted the Cubs during his comeback
Matthew Boyd didn’t have a team during the first half of last season while recovering from Tommy John surgery. To stay sharp and push through the rehab process, Boyd followed two left-handed pitchers in particular: Shota Imanaga and Justin Steele. Boyd’s layoff made it difficult to attract major-league offers last summer, but he pitched so well during the Cleveland Guardians’ postseason run that he landed a two-year, $29 million contract with the Cubs.
“I dove in on Shota and Steele’s starts quite a bit,” Boyd said. “We do similar things, but we also are very unique in our own ways. I kind of stayed locked in (on them). Because I wasn’t watching baseball every day, I’d pick the guys I like to watch. I loved watching them attack hitters.”
With Boyd getting the chance to study Imanaga and Steele up close, the Cubs have three left-handed starters in their projected Opening Day rotation. If they were to acquire Luzardo, that would give them four with another lefty, Jordan Wicks, as one of their top depth starters.
Luzardo would be an upside play for a pitching staff that got results but lacked swing-and-miss stuff. Cubs starters were 25th in baseball with a 21.1 percent strikeout rate. When healthy, Luzardo can miss bats — he posted a 28.7 percent strikeout rate over the 2022 and 2023 seasons. And Luzardo would instantly become the hardest-throwing starter of the current group.
An outside-the-box idea for the rotation
Nine of Nate Pearson’s 19 appearances with the Cubs went longer than one inning. (Tim Nwachukwu / Getty Images)
The Cubs have kicked around the possibility of stretching out Nate Pearson as a starter, though his role next season will very likely be in the bullpen. The concept follows the trend that recently saw Clay Holmes, a two-time All-Star closer, sign with the New York Mets for $38 million guaranteed and an opportunity to start.
Those examples illustrate how organizations have to get creative with pitching staffs, given the injury rates and rising costs for starters. Remember, Steele first broke into the majors as a left-handed reliever and began to earn his spot in the rotation after the Cubs’ sell-off at the 2021 trade deadline.
The Cubs traded for Pearson at this year’s deadline, believing a change of scenery and their pitching infrastructure could help unlock what once made him a first-round pick for the Toronto Blue Jays and a top-10 prospect in the industry. Pearson, 28, became an effective multi-inning reliever after getting traded from Toronto (2.73 ERA in 19 appearances), and the Cubs probably won’t want to disrupt that momentum.
What Carson Kelly’s arrival means for Miguel Amaya
Experience matters for catchers, who have to absorb a lot of information and constantly make quick decisions. They work closely with coaches and pitchers, and they need to learn what makes those people tick. Handling all of those responsibilities can be exhausting.
Miguel Amaya graded out well in those areas, but the Cubs had to make catcher one of their highest offseason priorities. As manager Craig Counsell said: “Miguel showed at times last year that he should be the guy. And other times, he showed us he needs a break.”
That’s why veteran catcher Carson Kelly received a two-year, $11.5 million contract to be part of a timeshare behind the plate. Kelly is also well regarded as a good clubhouse guy, a former top prospect and a hitter who can be close to major-league average in the right situation.
“Miguel is going to still have the opportunity to be the answer,” Counsell said. “Or not the answer, but be a guy that is a regular contributor. It’s also important for us to have a backup plan. We’re going to make sure we have a really good plan for that.”
