{"id":398701,"date":"2026-01-08T01:15:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T01:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/398701\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T01:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T01:15:10","slug":"cubs-acquire-edward-cabrera-mlb-trade-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/398701\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubs Acquire Edward Cabrera – MLB Trade Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cubs and Marlins have completed one of the more notable trades of the offseason \u2014 a swap that\u2019ll send righty Edward Cabrera<\/a> from Miami to Chicago in exchange for top outfield prospect Owen Caissie<\/a> and minor league infielders Cristian Hernandez<\/a> and Edgardo De Leon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Cabrera, 28 in April, is a former top prospect who has shown flashes of excellence in the past but wasn\u2019t healthy enough to deliver on that potential until a breakout 2025 campaign. Though he still logged some IL time this past season, he turned in a career-high 137 2\/3 innings with a strong 3.53 ERA and encouraging underlying numbers. Cabrera punched out 25.8% of opponents, logged a career-low 8.3% walk rate \u2014 far better than the 13.3% clip he carried into the season \u2014 recorded a 46.6% ground-ball rate and sat 97 mph on his four-seamer (and 96.8 mph on his sinker) in 2025.<\/p>\n

Early in the 2025 season, Cabrera missed two weeks with blisters on his pitching hand \u2014 his second career IL trip due to blister troubles. His second IL trip in 2025 was more alarming, as it was prompted by an elbow sprain late in the year. That\u2019s a far more worrying injury, but Cabrera returned after only three weeks and fired nine generally solid innings across his final two appearances, sitting 97.7 mph on his four-seamer and 97.9 mph on his sinker during that time. Given the trade interest in him this offseason and a deal now nearing its completion, it doesn\u2019t appear there\u2019s any current concern about a major elbow injury looming on the horizon.<\/p>\n

Beyond his premium velocity and quality rate stats, Cabrera\u2019s contractual situation always figured to hold broad-reaching appeal. He\u2019s entering the second of four arbitration seasons as a Super Two player and is projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz<\/a> to earn a highly affordable $3.7MM in 2026. He\u2019s under club control all the way through 2028, and based on the fairly low starting point in his arbitration journey, those three seasons aren\u2019t likely to cost much more than $20MM overall.<\/p>\n

Cabrera will slot into a deep Cubs rotation mix, joining Rookie of the Year finalist Cade Horton<\/a> and veterans Matthew Boyd<\/a>, Jameson Taillon<\/a> and Shota Imanaga<\/a> (who accepted a $22.05MM qualifying offer in November). Acquiring Cabrera likely pushes veteran swingman Colin Rea<\/a> back into a long relief role to begin the season, though he\u2019d be among the first men up in the event of an injury elsewhere on the staff.<\/p>\n

Right-hander Javier Assad<\/a> is also in the mix, though he missed nearly all of the 2025 season due to a severe oblique strain and posted a career-low 15% strikeout rate in the 37 innings he managed to tally late in the season. Assad still has minor league options remaining, so he could be sent to Triple-A to begin the year or else considered for a multi-inning relief role similar to the one Rea might occupy. Other options down in Triple-A include hard-throwing 26-year-old righty Ben Brown<\/a> and former top prospect Jordan Wicks<\/a> (also 26). Top prospect Jaxon Wiggins<\/a> is not yet on the 40-man roster and has barely pitched in Triple-A, but he could be in line for a big league debut this coming season as well.<\/p>\n

Of course, the Cubs will be eagerly awaiting the return of ace Justin Steele<\/a>, ideally at some point in the season\u2019s first half. The 30-year-old Steele was the team\u2019s top starter from 2022-24, pitching a combined 427 innings of 3.10 ERA ball with plus strikeout, walk and ground-ball rates, but he made just four starts in 2025 before requiring UCL surgery in late April. Every rehab process is different, but it\u2019s reasonable to expect that he could be back in June or July.<\/p>\n

By the season\u2019s second half, the Cubs could be looking at a rotation led by Steele, Horton and Cabrera, with veterans Taillon, Boyd, Imanaga and Rea among the options for the final couple spots. Injuries will almost always disrupt any team\u2019s best laid plans, but that\u2019s a quality group of arms that doesn\u2019t even factor in Wiggins, who posted a 2.19 ERA and 31% strikeout rate in 18 starts (and one relief appearance) between Double-A and Triple-A last year.<\/p>\n

On the Marlins side of things, Cabrera stood as an obvious trade candidate \u2014 but one who\u2019d come at a fairly hefty price, given that salary and remaining club control. He landed on the back end of MLBTR\u2019s Top 40 Offseason Trade Candidate list<\/a> back in November.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s obviously not a financially driven move, but the Fish are deep in rotation options \u2014 with multiple top prospects nearing readiness \u2014 and have various holes in the lineup to fill. Swapping out Cabrera for a package headlined by Caissie works toward that end.<\/p>\n

Even with Cabrera departing, Miami can roll out a rotation including Sandy Alcantara<\/a>, Eury Perez<\/a>, Ryan Weathers<\/a> and Braxton Garrett<\/a> in the top four spots. Journeyman Janson Junk<\/a> had a surprisingly nice showing with the Fish in 2025 and is an option either in the fifth spot or long relief. The same can be said for righty Ryan Gusto<\/a>, whom the Marlins acquired in the deadline trade sending Jesus Sanchez<\/a> to Houston. Former top prospects Max Meyer<\/a>, Dax Fulton<\/a> and Adam Mazur<\/a> are all on the 40-man roster, too. Current top prospects Thomas White<\/a> and Robby Snelling<\/a> could both debut this coming season. White, in particular, is regarded as one of the top prospects in the entire sport.<\/p>\n

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Caissie should step right into the Marlins\u2019 outfield next season. The 23-year-old slugger made his big league debut this past season, struggling in a tiny sample of 27 plate appearances, but is a former second-round pick and longtime top prospect who has shredded minor league pitching. That includes a 2025 campaign in which he slashed .286\/.386\/.551 (139 wRC+) with 22 homers, 28 doubles and a pair of triples in 99 games\/433 plate appearances of Triple-A work.<\/p>\n

Caissie is a lefty-swinging corner outfielder with big power and big swing-and-miss tendencies. He fanned in nearly 28% of his Triple-A plate appearances last year. He\u2019s regularly been able to offset the damage of those strikeouts by walking at high clips, however. He drew a free pass in 13.2% of his Triple-A plate appearances last year and has an overall 13.6% walk rate in five minor league seasons.<\/p>\n

Scouting reports on Caissie praise his plus throwing arm but predict he\u2019ll be limited to corner work (despite some early-career experience in center field). He has the makings of a prototypical three-true-outcomes right fielder. The Marlins could go with 2025 breakout slugger Kyle Stowers<\/a> in left field and Caissie in right, thus giving them a pair of high-powered bats to plug into the heart of their order for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

Because Caissie only made a brief MLB debut this past season, he still has six full seasons of club control remaining. He\u2019s still rookie-eligible, so the Marlins could potentially pick up a draft pick for him via MLB\u2019s prospect promotion incentive program, depending on when he\u2019s brought up for his Marlins debut and (of course) on how he fares in awards voting early in his big league tenure. Caissie was only selected to the major league roster last offseason, meaning he\u2019s only exhausted one minor league option year and still has two remaining.<\/p>\n

Caissie joins Stowers and breakout center fielder Jakob Marsee<\/a> in comprising a talented and intriguing outfield core. The Marlins\u2019 lineup, in general, has gotten more interesting over the past couple years, thanks largely to the emergence of Xavier Edwards<\/a> alongside those young outfielders. Former top catching prospect Agustin Ramirez<\/a> hit for power in his rookie campaign this past season but struggled to get on base and played extremely poor defense behind the plate. Marlins president Peter Bendix has emphasized that the club hopes to continue developing Ramirez behind the plate, but he could see time at first base and DH in 2026, especially once top catching prospect Joe Mack<\/a> debuts.<\/p>\n

Hernandez, 22, is a speed-and-defense shortstop who spent the 2025 season with the Cubs\u2019 High-A affiliate. Baseball America recently ranked him<\/a> 16th among Cubs farmhands heading into the 2026 season, noting that he has plus raw power but hits the ball on the ground far too frequently to ever tap into that pop. (This past season\u2019s seven home runs were a career-high.) BA\u2019s report notes that Hernandez has the tools to be an above-average defender but is often inaccurate with his throwing despite good arm strength.<\/p>\n

Improving the accuracy on Hernandez\u2019s throws seems like a more attainable goal than overhauling his offensive approach to get more loft without compromising his lower-than-average strikeout rate, but if the Marlins can fix both those traits, it\u2019s possible they\u2019ll have a starting-caliber shortstop on their hands. Those are big \u201cifs,\u201d of course, particularly considering that Hernandez just hit .252\/.329\/.365 as a 21-year-old in his second stint with the Cubs\u2019 High-A affiliate. He\u2019s a project, but a capable shortstop coming off a 52-steal season (61 attempts) is a nice secondary piece to add to the system.<\/p>\n

De Leon is the furthest from MLB-ready. He\u2019s an 18-year-old who signed as part of Chicago\u2019s 2024 international class. The 6\u2032, 170-pound De Leon played with the Cubs\u2019 Dominican Summer League club in 2024, hitting .277\/.431\/.433 in 181 plate appearances. He moved up to their Rookie-level Arizona Complex League affiliate in 2025 and slashed .276\/.353\/.500 in 153 turns at the plate. BA\u2019s Geoff Pontes listed him<\/a> as a sleeper prospect to watch heading into the 2026 season, citing his encouraging exit velocities and plus raw power.<\/p>\n

With just 334 professional plate appearances under his belt and his 19th birthday still six weeks away, De Leon is a pure development project for Miami. He\u2019s been a productive hitter in each of his two pro seasons, though, even with some moderately worrying swing-and-miss tendencies (28.8% strikeout rate in 2025). He\u2019ll probably head to the Marlins\u2019 Low-A affiliate to begin the 2026 season and doesn\u2019t seem likely to be a potential major league factor until 2028 or 2029 at the earliest.<\/p>\n

The Marlins remain a work in progress and will most likely enter 2026 as something of a playoff long shot, but there are a number of upward-pointing arrows on the roster, making it an encouraging time for Miami fans.<\/p>\n

Bleacher Nation\u2019s Michael Cerami first reported<\/a> that a Cabrera trade between the two teams was near completion. Kevin Barral of Fish On First reported<\/a> Caissie as the likely headliner. Christina De Nicola of MLB.com<\/a> and Craig Mish of SportsGrid<\/a> broke the news of the other two prospects in the deal. Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported<\/a> that the medical review process had been complete and the trade was official.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cubs and Marlins have completed one of the more notable trades of the offseason \u2014 a swap…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,212306,212307,16075,591,54244,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-398701","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cristian-hernandez","11":"tag-edgardo-de-leon","12":"tag-edward-cabrera","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-owen-caissie","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}