This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider.
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Cubs Rebuild Their Staff
The Cubs have suffered a rash of injuries to their starting pitchers this year, from Cade Horton to Edward Cabrera to Ben Brown. They’ve had to patch with Colin Rea and Javier Assad and the occasional opener, and it’s worked to the tune of a 91-win pace and a likely #4 seed again. They needed more, and today they got it, trading for Kevin Gausman, then going back to the Mets for Clay Holmes to join old friend David Peterson in Chicago. They tacked on lottery ticket Braxton Garrett and picked up a leverage reliever in Ryan Zeferjahn as well.
Holmes is due back from a broken leg this week, and he should join a group that includes Gausman, Peterson, Matthew Boyd, Shota Imanaga, and, sometime next week, Cabrera. It’s Miranda July’s favorite ballclub. Zeferjahn, who has gone up a level in the last month, may be the most important addition; he joins a pen that’s 24th in FIP, 26th in fWAR, 17th in K-BB%. If and when Ben Brown, or even Justin Steele, returns, they can help bolster the bullpen, and Daniel Palencia will come back some time in August.
The Cubs, just about locked into that first wild card, did a lot of work today to make their postseason staff better than it was last October. They still lack that front-end pitcher, though, and really need Cabrera or Gausman to find that level over the next couple of months. Facing the Phillies in a best-of-three would be a daunting proposition.
The Cubs did give up a lot to make these moves, trading Moises Ballesteros to the Angels and top-100 prospect Jefferson Rojas to the Mets. It’s the kind of aggressiveness many fans want to see at the trade deadline...as long as it works.
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