Never too late to be too late
The Cubs still need an ace to pair with Cade Horton
Bruce Levine kicked off Cubs' rumor season by saying that they are expected to be heavily involved in the market to sign former Cubs' farmhand Dylan Cease. This is the same Bruce Levine who started saying that the Cubs were ready to make a big trade deadline deal in June, so take it for what it's worth.
I can see the Cubs' interest in Cease. In addition to allowing them to finally win the Jose Quintana trade once and for all (the Cubs won four playoff games with Jose on the team, the Sox won two with Cease and Eloy on their roster, but Jason Benetti did get to yell, "Thanks Cubs!" once, so probably worth it for them), Cease actually fits a need on the Cubs pitching staff.
Guy who walks a lot of hitters.
No, that's not it.
Guy who actually strikes out more than one batter per inning.
None of the Cubs starters did that last year. Two of them did it in 2024. Barely. Shōta struck out 174 in 173.1 innings, and Justin Steele struck out 135 in 134.2 innings.
Cease struck out 215 in 168 innings. He's done it every year since 2021.
But yeah, he's also led the National League in walks twice. So there's that.
Did you think Cade Horton did it? I did, too. Well, until right before the playoffs, when I looked and saw that he didn't. He "only" struck out 97 hitters in 118 innings...but he also only have up 95 hits. That's better.
Besides, as Crash Davis taught us, strikeouts are fascist.
Anyway, there are a couple of problems with the Cubs attempting to sign Cease. He was kind of bad last year. And, he was kind of bad in 2023. So that's two of three years. He'll be 30, so he's not going to get better. But then again, he was awesome in 2022 and he was really good in 2024. Maybe it's an even year thing with him. He's the early '10s Giants in pitcher form.
The other issue shouldn't be an issue, but it always is with the Cubs. His agent is Scott Boras. That doesn't mean the Cubs can't or won't sign him. Matt Boyd is a Boras client. Cody Bellinger is and he signed two different deals with the Cubs.
But Boras does this crazy thing that the Cubs don't like. He tries to get his clients as much money as possible.
Personally, while I agree the Cubs need to sign another starter, I'd go after somebody better than Dylan Cease. And it's the same somebody I'd have tried to trade for at the deadline. Though, ironically, he's a guy who famously can be dominant without striking out more than a hitter per inning.
I'd trade for Sandy Alcantara. Same age as Cease. But he's never lead the league in walks. He has, however led the National League in Cy Young votes before. Like ALL 30 of the first place Cy Young votes in 2023.
Teams were scared off by his performance in the run up to the deadline, and they were scared off by the Marlins asking price for him. Last year was his first season after his surgery to combat the effects of Tommy John Disease, and as is normally the case in that event, the season was up and down. But some smart team should have traded for him anyway, because after struggling to a 4-9 record with a 7.22 ERA in the first half of the season, Sandy was 7-3 with a 3.33 ERA in the second.
The Cubs nearly had a trade with the Marlins last December, but after agreeing to deal Owen Caissie to the Marlins for Jesus Luzardo the Cubs crack medical staff nixed it over concerns that if they did the deal, Luzardo's arm wouldn't hold up and Caissie wouldn't have the opportunity to hit the Wrigley Field ivy with his face.
Luzardo was subsequently traded to the Phillies for Emaarion Boyd and Starlyn Caba, and his noodle arm was good enough for 32 starts, a 15-7 record, a 3.92 ERA and 216 strikeouts in 183 innings. Whoops.
If velocity is a good indicator of the health of a pitcher's arm after Tommy John Disease surgery then Sandy averaging 97.1 MPH on his heater (91st percentile) seems like an encouraging sign. At his best in his Cy Young season of 2023 he averaged 97.9 MPH on his fastball.
He's signed through next year at $17.3 million with a team option for $21 million if there's baseball in 2027. Considering the qualifying offer will be more than that, and it works as somewhat of a baseline for free agent deals, Sandy's likely more affordable than Cease, too.
I have no idea if the Nationals' new head of baseball operations Paul Toboni wants to start his tenure by trading Mackenzie Gore. But if I were Jed Hoyer I'd sure find out.
Gore is just 26 and was good enough to be an All-Star last year despite going on to lose 15 games for the awful Nationals. And it wasn't a token "some National has to be on the team" choice, since his teammate James Wood was also an All-Star.
Gore would fit the mold of a strikeout pitcher the Cubs are lacking. He struck out 185 in 159.2 innings last year. He's struck out more hitters than innings pitched in every one of his four big league seasons. A 1-2 of Gore and Horton would set the Cubs up pretty well for a pretty long time. Or, until 2028 when Mackenzie leaves as a free agent.
Gore has led the NL in the same category the last two seasons. He hit 14 batters in 2024 and cut it to 12 but still led the league this year. So, that's something. He also gave up 20 homers which isn't great, but it's not terrible. It tied him for 63rd in baseball with such luminaries as Colin Rea and Davis Martin, but also with Spencer Strider ad Logan Gilbert. So there's that. What's that, I have no idea.
The contract expense for Cease would be the highest of the three. The prospect cost would be the highest for Gore. So Sandy it is!
One issue would be that Sandy doesn't fit into Jed's preferred type. Jed really enjoys collecting mediocre white guys.
But incredibly, ESPN.com thinks that's exactly what Sandy is.
What the hell is this?
Actually, don't question it. Just show it to Jed and hand him the phone.
Or, see if the Nats are interested in Ben Brown. He struck out more batters than inning pitched. 121 K's in 106 innings. The only problem is that he also gave up that many hits (121) and he gave up nearly as many homers (18) as Mackenzie, despite pitching more than 50 fewer innings.
Regardless, the Cubs need to get some more swing and miss in their rotation. With Kyle Tucker almost certainly gone, they're going to add it to the lineup at least.
