Do the Cubs have too much pitching now?

Podcast: Trade Deadline Recrap - August 3, 2026

Last year, Jed Hoyer spent the evening of the trade deadline trying to explain that the prices on the starting pitching that the Cubs badly needed to add were just too damned high to pay. He wasn't alone, as none of the best starters believed to be on the market were traded. Jed lamented that every team wanted Matt Shaw or Cade Horton or both. And maybe they did. Or maybe the Cubs didn't have anything else to sell.

This year, the market was significantly different. More than 20 starting pitchers changed teams, including the best in the game, Tarik Skubal. The Cubs, of course didn't have the prospects or the stomach to go after Skubal with any real determination, but unlike last year they were far from shut out.

In three deals, involving five prospects, the Cubs traded for veteran starters Kevin Gausman and Clay Holmes and added young-ish Braxton Garrett. They also traded for Angels reliever Ryan Zeferjahn, and Mets outfielder Tyrone Taylor.

Gone are young Cubs we hardly, if ever, knew like tiny little Brett Bateman and tinier Ty Southisene, first baseman Jonathan Long, pitcher Jace Beck and an actual prospect in erstwhile shortstop Jefferson Rojas.

Rojas figures to make it to the big leagues, just not at short. Third base is more likely with an eventual move to left field. He's hit at every level, and has normally been very young for those levels. Does giving up your best prospect for two months of Clay Holmes and Tyrone Taylor seem like a lot? Yeah, it does.

But the player the Cubs traded that seems shortsighted is Moises Ballesteros. Maybe Ryan Zeferjahn will be an important piece in the Cubs bullpen for the next four and a third seasons, but why would you sell low on a 22 year old who is one of the few players in your system who can really hit?

As great a job as Craig Counsell has done dragging this team into August in the position they are, his handling of Ballesteros this season made no sense.

Ballesteros entered May hitting .338 with a .392 on base and a .620 slug. He was the best hitter on the team.

And then, like any 22 year old in his first full season in the big leagues he went into a skid. He went six for his next 59 (.102).

He bounced back in June a bit to .231, but he got just 25 at bats in 11 games. He was no longer starting regularly, and he was getting pinch hit for against lefties.

The Cubs sent him to Iowa with an overall slash line of .231/.303/.385 and handed his at bats over, mostly to Michael Conforto, who has hit .236/.314/.472 in his place. More slug, but not much else.

The main issue with Ballesteros appears to be that he has no real position. He's at best a serviceable catcher, and he's as wide as he is tall, so while he's played some first base, that's not a long term fit. But the idea that the Cubs found him expendable because Owen Ayers has emerged as a real catching prospect makes little sense. Moises is a hitter, not a catcher. They're not competing for the same spot. It sure seems like trading Ballesteros to get Zeferjahn was a choice made by the Cubs. There had to be other prospects the Angels would have taken. So it's curious as to why the Cubs would effectively give up on a 22 year old with the best hit tool in the entire organization. They sold low on one of their best prospects and they traded another for two rentals. It really seems like Carter Hawkins' nonsense about "ensuring the future of the 2032 Cubs" was just bullshit. As it should be.

Anyway, enough about what they gave up.

Did they get enough to seriously contend in the NL playoffs?

If healthy, Clay Holmes is probably one of the three best starting pitchers traded at the deadline. If Matt Boyd continues his current string of quality pitching, game one of the Wild Card Series will be started by one of them. Holmes was having his best season (2.39 ERA in 52 innings, with just 40 hits allowed) when he broke his leg in a start against the Yankees. Not only did he break it, but he pitched to seven hitters after he broke it. He gave up four runs in 4.1 innings, and it's the only start all season that he allowed more than two runs. He had all that success while generating prodigious amounts of ground balls, with the Mets hapless defense trying to field them.

I wrote about Gausman yesterday. His overall numbers are meh this year, and he was downright lousy for two full months, so there's a risk that he's just toast. But he was very good as recently as Memorial Day, so there should be something still in there. If he slots in behind Shōta, the Cubs still have David Peterson and Edward Cabrera to make starts.

The new additions will move Colin Rea and Javier Assad to the bullpen where Rea becomes the long man and Assad just pitches wherever. Javy is the most under-appreciated pitcher on the team.

So what if Ben Brown makes his way back from his weird neck thing? It'd be nice to have him for two inning relief stints in the playoffs. The Cubs are going to get Hoby Milner back by the weekend, and hopefully Daniel Palencia a few days later. The days of Turd Ferguson and Jake Woodford might be coming to a rapid close.

It can't happen soon enough.

What will the Cubs do with Braxton Garrett? He has options left and was already pitching at triple-A with the Marlins before the trade, so he's off to Iowa. He's an interesting guy, who was very good in 2023, caught Tommy John Disease during the 2024 season and missed all of last year. But he's not young. He's already 29 and this is his 10th season in professional baseball. The Cubs didn't give up much to get him, but it feels like he's just a potential rotation piece for next year more than anything for this year. Hey, at least he'll only be 30.

The most surprising acquisition was Tyrone Taylor. I didn't think the Cubs had it in them to accept that they are in dire need of a right handed hitting outfielder to take at bats away from Ian Happ. But not only did they trade for one, they recalled Kevin Alcantara specifically to start in left field Monday night against Dodgers lefty Justin Wrobleski with Happ sitting and watching until late in the game, when he came in, in time to strike out again.

Taylor is slashing .301/.311/.589 against lefties with five homers in 73 at bats. He still hits for power against right handed pitchers, but not much else. His average against righties is just .181 with five of his 13 hits homers. He's a true platoon outfielder. It's not ideal, but it's an improvement. Defensively, Taylor can handle all three outfield spots, so he is a useful addition.

The Cubs are better and deeper after these deals. Are they good enough to be serious World Series contenders?

Probably not.

But hey, maybe the Dodgers will eat some Taylor Farm lettuce two weeks before the playoffs start?

You gotta be prepared for everything.