Days before Thanksgiving, the Chicago Cubs’ stated offseason goal of adding pitching to their roster has commenced. Between Shota Imanaga’s decision to accept a one-year, $22.025 million qualifying offer and Phil Maton’s agreement on a two-year contract, their to-do list is shortened.
But the work isn’t close to being done.
Before accounting for Maton’s deal, which includes a club option for 2028, the Cubs are carrying a luxury-tax payroll of around $190 million, according to RosterResource, an estimate that includes player benefits, arbitration projections and salaries for pre-arbitration players. That should leave room to work around next year’s $244 million threshold, assuming Chicago’s baseball operations group is actually authorized to spend up to a level commensurate with other big-market franchises.
In time, we’ll see where the Cubs end up on the payroll rankings. For now, this is what we’re hearing, based on information from league and team sources.
The Cubs will continue to pursue a starting pitcher who can compete at the top of their rotation. It will be determined whether that addition comes through trading for a pitcher such as Edward Cabrera or signing a free agent who rejected a qualifying offer, a group that includes Framber Valdez, Dylan Cease, Michael King, Ranger Suárez and Zac Gallen. But adding an impactful starting pitcher remains the goal.
Does the calculus change with Imanaga back in the fold? Certainly. Allocating $22.025 million guaranteed to one player is obviously a factor in the budget. But acquiring pitching talent is always an expensive endeavor.
The Cubs have already assembled an impressive amount of depth with Imanaga, Cade Horton, Matthew Boyd, Jameson Taillon, Colin Rea and Javier Assad. Justin Steele, who will be a full year removed from elbow surgery by the middle of April 2026, is expected to begin next season on the injured list. As swingmen, Rea and Assad can also be used out of a bullpen that needs more reinforcements.
If the Cubs didn’t trust Imanaga enough to use him in their final game in October, then they certainly can’t stop looking for more pitching and better options to upgrade a playoff team.
There was a point during Imanaga’s decision-making process when both sides sensed the possibility that he might reject the qualifying offer and sign with a new team. But there is a legitimate belief that this reunion could work out well for everyone involved.
Imanaga will return to a place where he has flourished at times, armed with the motivation to prove the doubters wrong and show that he is worthy of a longer-term investment.
The Cubs are retaining a left-handed pitcher who once performed at an All-Star, Cy Young Award-caliber level, which bolstered the franchise’s credibility in Japan, a robust market for international talent, and energized the crowds at Wrigley Field, an enormous moneymaking machine.
If Imanaga is on a steep decline at the age of 32, then it’s only a one-year commitment. But if the Cubs believed that to be the case, they wouldn’t have offered him a huge raise from his 2025 salary and compensated him at a rate equivalent to the average for Major League Baseball’s 125 highest-paid players.
Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer, who values roster flexibility and touts the organization’s “clean books,” subscribes to this old baseball adage: There’s no such thing as a bad one-year deal.
Especially when the baseball industry is bracing for a lockout once the current collective bargaining agreement expires after the 2026 season.
Phil Maton struck out 11.89 batters per nine innings in 2025. (Ron Jenkins / Getty Images)
The Cubs acted swiftly to sign Maton and moved outside their comfort zone with a multiyear deal for a reliever because they anticipated that the bullpen market would soon become overheated. Their preference is to add another experienced reliever to pair with Maton, 32, who grew up in Illinois and previously pitched in the postseason with the Cleveland Guardians, Houston Astros and New York Mets.
But if the demand for late-innings relievers is that high, closers such as Devin Williams and Pete Fairbanks should be able to command hefty contracts that do not neatly fit into Chicago’s bullpen-building philosophy.
That outlook on the bullpen — constantly trying to add volume and spread around the resources and opportunities — forced the Cubs to pay even closer attention to Friday’s non-tender deadline.
Evan Phillips, for example, became a free agent when the Los Angeles Dodgers declined to offer him a contract through the arbitration system. The right-handed reliever is recovering from the Tommy John surgery he underwent in June, a timeline that could put him back in action around the time that playoff contenders are searching for bullpen help at the trade deadline.
Phillips, 31, was projected to earn $6.1 million through arbitration, according to MLB Trade Rumors. He saved 45 games combined over the 2023 and 2024 seasons, and he pitched in five playoff series during his time with the Dodgers.
While far from the only reliever on Chicago’s radar, Phillips profiles as the type of pitcher the Cubs have successfully identified and incorporated into the bullpen. Among pitchers, Cubs manager Craig Counsell has an excellent reputation for keeping their health at the forefront of his decisions.