CHICAGO — Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer hoped the reason he was holding court at Wrigley Field on Wednesday would have been for a workout day in the midst of the National League Championship Series. Instead, the ballpark sat empty and he sat in the interview room, dissecting the end of the team’s season and the winter ahead.
On one hand, Hoyer said the initial reaction is disappointment over the gut-punch ending to an NL Division Series that went the distance against the rival Brewers. Once that feeling wears off, Chicago’s front-office leader believes there will be a sense of pride over winning 92 games, getting back onto the October stage and packing the Friendly Confines for postseason games once again.
“It was really nice to be able to play five home playoff games,” Hoyer said. “I wish we could’ve played a lot more.”
There were offensive shortcomings, to be sure, but the Cubs’ depleted rotation did not look ready to withstand the type of deep run that would have been required to win the club’s first World Series since 2016. The depth that the North Siders felt they had for the starting staff at the season’s outset thinned dramatically by the playoffs.
Shota Imanaga started one playoff game, came out of the bullpen in another outing and was not used in the decisive Game 5 of the NLDS against the Brewers. Rookie Cade Horton — one of the top arms in baseball in the second half — was lost to a right rib fracture shortly before the playoffs began. Only Matthew Boyd and Jameson Taillon were used exclusively as starters, and they combined for 17 2/3 innings between five outings.
In total, the Cubs had 32.4% of their postseason innings (22 1/3 of 69) come from their starting pitchers, though that includes going with an opener twice.
“Obviously at the end,” Hoyer said, “I think with some injuries and just the nature of the series we played, I think there was probably some depth that we could’ve used on the pitching staff. And I think that’s an area that we’ll always continue to try to focus on.”
The Cubs have a decision coming on Imanaga, whose contract has a three-year team option (valued at $57 million). If declined, the lefty can either pick up a $15 million player option for ‘26 or go the route of a one-year qualifying offer. The last scenario would risk losing Imanaga to free agency.
“When we signed Shota,” Hoyer said, “if you sort of had shown us his production the last two years, we would’ve taken that in a heartbeat. Not only has he produced for us, but he’s a great teammate, a terrific asset to the organization. Obviously, we have decisions to make and discussions to [have], and over the next two, three weeks, we’ll do that. But I’ve got nothing but positive things to say about Shota.”
As Hoyer and his front-office team begin to plot things out for the offseason ahead, solving what manager Craig Counsell so often calls the “innings puzzle” will be atop the to-do list. Adding an impact starting pitcher at the Trade Deadline was also a priority, but coming up empty in that situation only emphasized to Hoyer the importance of landing arms via other avenues.
“You’re constantly thinking about what else you could do,” Hoyer said. “That’s natural. But I do feel like, when I think back on the most obvious thing that people talk about — starting pitching at the Trade Deadline — honestly, I haven’t really thought about that much since early August, because I know what the market was and how tight the starting-pitching market was.
“I know to acquire players that could impact a pennant race, it would’ve cost us players that impacted our second half in a big way on the team.”
Names like MacKenzie Gore, Joe Ryan, Sandy Alcantara and Edward Cabrera, among others, were floated as Deadline targets, but all stayed put with their respective clubs. Horton and rookie third baseman Matt Shaw were on the wishlist for teams listening to offers, but the Cubs were not about to subtract such crucial pieces to ‘25 and beyond.
This winter, some of the top starting pitchers coming to the free-agent market will include Framber Valdez, Dylan Cease, Michael King and Ranger Suárez, among others. Under Hoyer, the Cubs have tended to stick to the middle tier of free-agent starters, so expect the North Siders to also see what is out there on the trade front.
Hoyer said acquiring starting pitching at the Deadline is becoming increasingly challenging.
“It is really difficult to do that midseason now,” Hoyer said. “And I think it’s becoming even more difficult with the new playoff format to do that. The teams are closer together. There’s fewer sellers. There’s just many more teams in the race that have a chance, and even some teams that weren’t in the race made decisions to not trade.”
In the meantime, the Cubs know Justin Steele (left elbow surgery in April) should be back early next season. Taillon and Boyd are under contract and Imanaga is likely to return, while Colin Rea has a $6 million club option for ‘26. Horton is coming off a Rookie of the Year-contending showing and should have a relatively normal offseason. Javier Assad, Ben Brown and Jordan Wicks continue to offer in-house depth, and MLB Pipeline Top 100 prospect Jaxon Wiggins (No. 67) is on the radar.
That is a good place to start, but the Cubs know a deep World Series run will require more.
“How do we just continue to add depth and add arms?” Hoyer said. “I think we did a good job of that this year in a lot of ways, but I think we just have to continue to push to get better.”
