The Chicago Cubs, early this season, appear to be very cognizant of what their postseason should look like and how best to optimize a run at a championship. Last year, the focus seemed to be on just making the postseason.
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In 2025, pitching injuries hobbled their playoff run. By the time they reached the NLDS, they were down to, maybe, two reliable starters and two or three trusted relievers. It was a sobering reality that played out at the tail end of an otherwise tremendous season.
In 2026, however, the pitching focus has seemingly shifted to depth and to pacing themselves for a more pitching-powerful postseason.
That, maybe especially, means keeping an eye on the workload of the team’s younger starters and using their long relief to greater benefit early in the season.
That mindset seemed evident in the first starts of Cade Horton and Edward Cabrera.
An early focus on workload
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Both young arms were cooking into the sixth inning with a minimal pitch count. Manager Craig Counsell opted to take both out of their respective games.
Horton and Cabrera do have a history of injury and durability issues, so it’s no surprise that Counsell would want to be cautious with both. Horton, for example, was shut down late in the season and missed the playoffs entirely with a rib injury, after a sizzling post-All-Star break run. But Counsell’s own words to the media after the Horton game reveal, perhaps, more of a long-term team goal than a simple focus on the health of one young arm.
“If you look at history,” Counsell said, “the first three weeks of the season for pitchers are pretty delicate.”
Counsell has also talked about the benefit of having starter-capable pitchers such as Ben Brown and Colin Rea on the team.
“Having a pair of experienced starters filling in the long-reliever role is a luxury for a team,” Counsell said.
“Early in the season, we thought it could be valuable. With unforeseen weather and being cautious with the starters, I think it’s worked out and will continue to be an asset the next couple of weeks.”
It’s been speculated that the Cubs may be trying to adopt a 2025 Dodgers strategy to managing their starting corps, one where the team is ultra conservative with their starters in order to bring a strong and rested rotation into the playoffs.
Adopting the 2025 Dodgers strategy?
Last season, the Dodgers’ rotation was strained throughout much of the regular season due to injury, with only Yoshinobu Yamamoto delivering more than 112.2 innings as a starter.
They were then careful and judicious with the return of injured/recovering starters Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell, and even Shohei Ohtani. Ultimately, they were able to reintroduce all three to the rotation just in time for a strong pennant push and then the postseason.
The strategy paid off as Yamamoto and the fresh, strong threesome of Glasnow, Blake, and Ohtani accounted for more than 68% of the innings pitched in the postseason en route to another World Series win for the Dodgers.
The Cubs don’t have the studs the Dodgers did, but they do have big-time depth. The team currently has seven possible starters on the big league roster and Javier Assad in Iowa, with recovering ace Justin Steele set to make his return before mid-season.
If the workload is handled just right, it’s almost a guarantee that Chicago will be able to put together a very nice four-man rotation for what they hope to be a deep postseason run.
Last season, they really didn’t have that luxury of depth—and they ultimately paid the price. This season, they’re angling for a much different end to the season.
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