The Chicago Cubs look to be still on the hunt for starting rotation pieces.
On Thursday, it was reported by USA Today’s Bob Nightengale that the Cubs were in negotiations with veteran right-hander Lance Lynn for a possible one-year deal. The news came as both a surprise and not a surprise.
It was a surprise because the Cubs were thought to be done with their pitching acquisitions, settled into the front four comprised of Shota Imanaga, Justin Steele, James Taillon, and Matthew Boyd, with fifth starter options Javier Assad, Ben Brown, Colin Rea, Brad Keller, and Jordan Wicks in the mix.
The not-surprising part came in the actual choice of the 37-year-old Lynn as a pickup, an acquisition in line with the Cubs’ MO of trying to pick up potentially viable major league assets on an affordable budget-friendly short-term contract.
Acquiring Lance Lynn, The Criticism
Since the buzz about Lynn started, though, there’s been some significant criticism and doubt regarding the signing of the 13-year veteran, who also happens to be a fly ball pitcher.
“No thank you,” MLB Insider Bernstein said in a recent appearance on 670 The Score. “They don’t need another guy throwing 90. He’ll get his something lit in Wrigley Field.
“No thank you. A fly ball pitcher? The fact that Shota (Imanaga) got through last year as well as he did was great. That is a bad fit.”
Lynn is coming off a bounce back year in 2024, finishing with a 3.84 ERA in 23 starts with the St. Louis Cardinals after a career-worst 2023 campaign split between the Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers where he posted a combined 5.73 ERA. In his career, the veteran has had a multi-year run as a high-end starter with a lifetime ERA of 3.74 in 2006.1 total innings.
Brandon Glick of Call to the Pen is declaring the possible signing of Lynn a typical workaround from a Cubs organization focused on the bargain bin at the expense of acquiring true star assets.
Per Glick:
“The Chicago Cubs — and, perhaps more specifically, Jed Hoyer — just cannot help themselves when it comes to the bargain bin…
…a doomsday scenario in reality would put Lynn in an uncomfortably important position. If Steele or Imanaga misses time along with someone like Boyd or Rea this season, Lynn could be asked to do far more than he’s been capable of in recent years.
Ultimately, the news of this potential signing is really just a microcosm of the entire Cubs offseason.
In a vacuum, the move makes sense, and perhaps should even be applauded for being forward-thinking. In reality, though, it just highlights what the team failed to do all winter outside of Tucker: bring in a star.”
A star, you say?
Chicago Cubs Still Pursuing Dylan Cease?
Jon Heyman of The New York Post is reporting that the Cubs are among as many as nine teams showing interest in San Diego Padres ace (and former Cubs farm system product) Dylan Cease, who is eligible to become a free agent after this 2025 season.
All of this last-minute hunting for starting pitching makes one wonder whether Chicago sees some issues in its rotation or, at the very least, some possibility of issues.
Starting Rotation Questions Emerging?
Imanaga has struggled a bit in the Cactus League and has shown some troubling analytics data so far this spring. Many also feel that the Japanese star benefited greatly from an unusually pitcher-friendly Wrigley Field last year in his stellar rookie season.
The Cubs’ free agent acquisition, Boyd, has a history of injury and is coming off mid-2023 Tommy John surgery. He hasn’t thrown more than 100 innings in a season since 2019.
Assad, meanwhile, will be starting the season on the injured list with oblique issues. None of his fifth starter competition can be considered sure thing rotation assets at this point.
So, the Cubs may see the need to add arms, either in the front of the rotation or at the back, in anticipation of bad things happening for a rotation on a team where lots of good things should be taking place.
Who could argue that insurance is a bad thing? The question is whether the team is acquiring the right insurance.
Chicago Cubs manager addresses pitching rumors amid awkward situation
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