The Chicago Cubs had been angling to acquire righty powerhouse pitcher Edward Cabrera from the Miami Marlins since the end of the 2024 season. They finally pulled the trigger this offseason.
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They paid a steep price for the 27-year-old starter, giving up no. 1 prospect OF Owen Caissie, no. 11 prospect INF Cristian Hernandez, and 19-year-old talent INF Edgardo De Leon. But, in return, the Cubs got a tremendous emerging talent who will be under contract through 2028.
The native of the Dominican Republic also brings a swing-and-miss power game that last year’s rotation lacked.
“I felt like we had a very contact oriented pitching staff,” Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said in a recent interview on “The Show” podcast. “Our defense helps that, but, you know, we don’t have that kind of stuff in our rotation other than Cade Horton. So he fit that well. Our pitching guys have long be enamored with him and getting a chance to work with him. And it’s three years of control. I think that was a significant factor. His age and the control”
Cabrera is a whiff machine
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Cabrera’s ability to generate swings and misses was on full display in his scoreless spring training appearance against the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday when Sal Frelick was juked out of his helmet waving haplessly at a killer changeup.
“Cabrera is a nasty guy,” catcher Moises Ballesteros commented after the game at American Family Fields of Phoenix. “Every pitch is nasty…[the changeup is] REALLY nasty.”
Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic crunched the numbers and laid out the facts regarding just how dominant the new Cub can be:
“Among eligible starters, his curveball got the highest whiff rate in baseball (45.2 percent). By Statcast’s RunValue metric, it was the third most valuable curveball. By the same RunValue metric, his changeup — a very unique offering that averages 94.2 mph and that he often uses to both righties and lefties — is 15th in baseball.”
Cabrera’s changeup has been getting all the raves this spring, but he really is a complete package, drawing comparisons from Cubs pitching coach Tommy Hottovy to former Cub Yu Darvish.
The injury issue
The concern with Cabrera, though, is injury. He was on the IL twice last season and has had shoulder and elbow issues throughout his young career. Last season was the first time he pitched more than 100 innings as a major leaguer.
Still, through injury, the young talent was able to shine (8-7, 3.53 ERA with 150 strikeouts in 137.2 innings over 26 starts) and affirm his reputation as an emerging talent on the cusp of breaking through to next-level success.
The Cubs have plenty of depth in their rotation, which would allow them to avoid putting too much stress and strain on Cabrera this season. Matthew Boyd, Cade Horton, Jameson Taillon, and Shota Imanaga are slated into the mix around Cabrera. They have ace Justin Steele returning from elbow surgery at some point in the first half of the season. They also have capable swingmen in Colin Rea, Javier Assad, and Ben Brown as rotation backup.
Cabrera just has to do what he was built to do and prove that the Cubs’ long-standing interest in him was warranted.
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