{"id":800362,"date":"2026-08-03T02:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T02:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/800362\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T02:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T02:34:09","slug":"cubs-acquire-kevin-gausman-mlb-trade-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/800362\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubs Acquire Kevin Gausman – MLB Trade Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cubs have acquired Kevin Gausman<\/a> in a trade with the Blue Jays, according to The Athletic\u2019s Ken Rosenthal and Mitch Bannon<\/a>.\u00a0 Toronto will receive minor league outfielder Brett Bateman<\/a> and infielder Ty Southisene<\/a> in return, Bannon writes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The move provides a big-name answer to the Cubs\u2019 pitching quest, as Chicago has been linked to seemingly just about every available starter on the market.\u00a0 A swath of rotation injuries sparked this extensive search, and the Cubs have already brought David Peterson<\/a> and Aaron Civale<\/a> into their pitching mix in separate deals within the last six weeks.<\/p>\n

Gausman is a clear upgrade over their targets, as Gausman gives Chicago a pitcher who can plugged right into a potential playoff rotation \u2014 perhaps even as the Cubs\u2019 top starter.\u00a0 The veteran right-hander has 14 games\u2019 worth of playoff experience over his career, including a 2.93 ERA over 30 2\/3 innings last postseason during the Blue Jays\u2019 trip to the World Series.<\/p>\n

Coming off that pennant run, moving Gausman at the deadline was just about the last thing the Jays expected for the 2026 season.\u00a0 However, Toronto\u2019s underwhelming season has bottomed out with a 13-21 record over the team\u2019s last 34 games, leaving the Jays in seller mode and looking to reload for 2027.\u00a0 Gausman is a free agent after the season and was therefore a natural trade chip, though a reunion between Gausman and the Jays wouldn\u2019t be surprising given how the pitcher has talked so glowingly about his time in Toronto.<\/p>\n

\"\"Now in his age-35 season, Gausman has a 4.38 ERA, 23.5% strikeout rate, and 6.7% walk rate over 127 1\/3 innings.\u00a0 The increase from his 3.59 ERA in 2025 could be chalked up to some batted-ball variance (.262 BABIP in 2025, .313 BABIP this year), and the only major difference from last season is that opposing hitters are having a lot more success against Gausman\u2019s offspeed pitches.<\/p>\n

While a small sample size of 15 innings, it is perhaps worth noting that Gausman has a 9.60 ERA in four career starts as an opposing pitcher at Wrigley Field.\u00a0 The most recent of those outings came on June 19 when Gausman was tagged for seven runs in only two innings of work.\u00a0 By coincidence, Gausman could line up to face his old team this Thursday when the Jays visit Wrigley for a make-up game from that June series.<\/p>\n

Since Opening Day 2021, only Logan Webb<\/a> has thrown more regular-season innings than Gausman\u2019s 1053 frames.\u00a0 This kind of durability is just what the Cubs need for their injury-plagued rotation, and Gausman will join Shota Imanaga<\/a> and Matthew Boyd<\/a> as the projected top three.\u00a0 Peterson has pitched well since joining the team, Edward Cabrera<\/a> is on a minor league rehab assignment and the Cubs still hope Ben Brown<\/a> can return from a stress reaction in his neck to contribute some more innings before 2026 is over.<\/p>\n

Between this group, Colin Rea<\/a>, and Javier Assad<\/a>, Chicago has a good deal of starting depth on hand, but more arms will be targeted before tomorrow\u2019s deadline.\u00a0 Reports indicated<\/a> that the Cubs were looking to add either one starter and two relievers or two starters and one reliever, and the biggest piece of that puzzle is now in place via Gausman.<\/p>\n

There hasn\u2019t been any indication of any money going to Chicago in the deal, so it appears as though the Cubs will assume the roughly $7.3MM remaining of Gausman\u2019s $23MM salary.\u00a0 MLBTR\u2019s Payroll Tracker<\/a> estimates the Cubs\u2019 tax number at just over $252.36MM \u2014 over the $244MM tax threshold but under the $264MM secondary penalty.\u00a0 This estimate doesn\u2019t yet reflect Gausman\u2019s added salary, but the Cubs will still be under the $264MM mark, which is noteworthy since the Cubs have only once in their history (2019) surpassed the second tax penalty barrier.<\/p>\n

Moving Gausman gets the Jays a bit closer<\/a> to ducking under the top penalty tier of $304MM, but the savings are pretty negligible since the Cubs covered only a bit of Jameson Taillon<\/a>\u2018s remaining salary in the other Chicago\/Toronto trade earlier today<\/a>.\u00a0 Taillon figures to cover some of Gausman\u2019s innings as the Jays play out the stretch, and get a look at the two new position-player prospects in their system.<\/p>\n

Southisene is the higher-regarded of the duo, ranked 10th on Baseball America\u2019s list of the top 30 Cubs prospects and 13th on MLB Pipeline\u2019s list.\u00a0 A fourth-round pick for the Cubs in the 2024 draft, Southisene played mostly second base in his first pro season at A-level Myrtle Beach, and has played primarily as a shortstop this year in A-ball and high-A ball.<\/p>\n

Evaluators are mixed on whether he\u2019s a better fit at second or short, and overall, BA feels Southisene \u201clooks like a bench bat with speed who could be used situationally.\u201d\u00a0 As a hitter, Southisene lacks power and hits a lot of grounders, but he has terrific contact skills and good enough speed to turn some of those grounders into hits.<\/p>\n

Bateman was an eighth-round pick in the 2023 draft, and he could be on the verge of his big league debut after hitting .312\/.431\/.422 with three homers and 18 doubles over 346 PA with Triple-A Iowa this year.\u00a0 He has also stolen 20 bases, giving him 83 steals in 101 attempts during his minor league career.<\/p>\n

This big season comes on the heels of three more modest years in Chicago\u2019s farm system, so Bateman only clocks in 21st on Pipeline\u2019s ranking and Baseball America didn\u2019t include him in their Cubs top 30.\u00a0 Bateman is also lacking in power or hard-contact numbers, so his offensive game is built \u201con reaching base by drilling grounders through holes in the defense and working walks,\u201d as per Pipeline\u2019s scouting report.\u00a0 Defensively, Bateman is a strong fielder with a good throwing arm, so he projects to be able to stick in center field.<\/p>\n

Inset photo courtesy of Kevin Sousa \u2013 Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cubs have acquired Kevin Gausman in a trade with the Blue Jays, according to The Athletic\u2019s Ken…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800363,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[377,99],"class_list":["post-800362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-kevin-gausman","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}