Chicago Cubs Land a Top Starter By Adding Kevin Gausman

The Chicago Cubs made their second trade of the day with the Toronto Blue Jays, acquiring long-time Blue Jay starter Kevin Gausman to bolster their pitching staff. Toronto is coming off an AL pennant and a whirlwind 2025 World Series appearance, but has come up short this season, leading to this being likely the first of multiple deadline trade-offs of rostered talent.

Earlier, these teams agreed on a trade that would send starter Jameson Taillon, who had recently been DFA’d by the Cubs, to Toronto for cash considerations or a player to be named later. Essentially, the Cubs have replaced Taillon with Gausman and improved their rotation as they look to further their postseason hopes.

Here is the full trade between the Cubs and Blue Jays:

Cubs get: RHP Kevin Gausman
Blue Jays get: OF Brett Bateman, INF Ty Southisene

While the Blue Jays aren’t going to be competitive this season, the Cubs direly need to improve their pitching staff if they want to be competitive in October.

Toronto is acquiring some talented prospects that will hopefully flourish at the MLB level in the near future. Here’s a more broken-down analysis of how this trade benefits both sides.

All Gaus No Brakes

The Cubs have cemented themselves as deadline buyers with this move, as we all expected they would be, as their 63-49 record has them comfortably placed in the top NL Wild Card spot and 6.5 games back of the Brewers in the NL Central division.

The Cubs have gotten a collective 4.25 ERA from their starting pitching this season and just a total of 4.2 fWAR (t-25th in MLB), so Gausman certainly brings a sense of stability to their staff.

Gausman’s been having a typical season for his standards, pitching to a 4.38 ERA over 23 starts with a 2.6 fWAR this season. He’s one of 20 pitchers to throw at least 127.0 innings so far in 2026, and his 127 strikeouts have been tied for the 13th-most among AL pitchers.

Overall, he’s been a very stable starter for the Blue Jays, and he leaves Toronto as one of the most accomplished, impressive, and beloved pitchers in franchise history.

For the Cubs, they’re looking for a pitcher with experience pitching in the postseason, headlining a rotation, and being a consistent and reliable option every time he pitches.

Gausman has a career 3.83 ERA through 56.2 postseason innings, including a 2.93 ERA over 30.2 innings in Toronto’s storybook postseason run last year. Chicago hasn’t gotten past the NLDS since 2017, and this is likely the first of many moves that they’ll make to bolster their roster for October.

That all being said, they gave up two highly-talented minor leaguers in Bateman and Southisene, but fans will be delighted to see the Cubs challenging for a playoff spot and looking to do damage in the postseason thanks to their incredible star players and strong all-around depth.

Better with Bateman?

Brett Bateman is the oldest player heading back to the Blue Jays in this deal, and the 24-year-old has been completely balling out at the Triple-A level. Performing at a 126 wRC+ level this season, Bateman has excelled as one of the best hitters in Triple-A’s International League.

He ranks in the top seven hitters in this league in batting average (.312), on-base percentage (.431), and walk rate (17.3%).

Bateman is an excellent hitter who has been one of the Cubs’ most impressive prospects at the highest level of the minor leagues, and he is certainly capable of making an impact at the MLB level very soon.

Not only is he 24 years of age, but he has worked his way through every level of MiLB and might be an option to hold down an MLB roster spot as soon as next season in Toronto.

As a perennial on-base threat and a weapon on the basepaths, Bateman’s 20 stolen bases in 23 opportunities, .392 BABIP, and .396 wOBA show that he’s more than capable of finding his way on-base and posing a threat in other ways than with a powerful bat.

Toronto was one of the league’s best teams at making contact and driving in runs systemically, and while they weren’t as accomplished at doing so in 2026, Bateman fits that mold.

Whether he still needs some time to develop in the minor leagues or a roster spot is waiting for him in the near future, Bateman’s an interesting name to keep an eye on going forward, and he’ll be in a Blue Jays uniform sooner rather than later. He batted .444 in 25 spring training plate appearances this year, so who knows how long he’ll remain in the minors?

Southisene Heading Up North

Ty Southisene was drafted in the 4th round of the 2024 draft by the Cubs and is currently playing at the High-A level in the Cubs’ system. Southisene isn’t known for his power at the plate, having not hit a single home run in his 156 career professional games. What he’s known for, however, is his abilities to get on base, take his walks, and run with extreme success.

Southisene, at the High-A level this year, has slashed .333/.459/.381 with 56 hits, 39 runs, and 20 stolen bases across 43 games.

At every level of MiLB, he’s notched walk rates that have not only been above-average, but exceeded his strikeout rate in frequency every step of the way. There are only 12 hitters (min. 200 PA) with a higher wRC+ than Southisene (134 wRC+) in the High-A Midwest League and only two with a higher OBP than him.

Among hitters in the Midwest League with at least a 7.9 Speed Score on FanGraphs, there are only seven with a higher OPS than Southisene, and only one is younger. He is a strong example of a multi-tool athlete with elite speed and contact ability.

Over 45% of his hits this season have gone to the opposite field, and he very much fits the profile of a slap-hitting leadoff hitter that causes havoc on the basepaths while not hitting for much power.

He’s certainly not done growing in the minor leagues, though, and we could see Southisene make an impact at the MLB level over the coming years, potentially as an up-the-middle partner of JoJo Parker or Arjun Nimmala on the way there.

Closing Thoughts

Although this likely isn’t the last move that either of these teams will make before tomorrow’s 3 PM deadline, it strengthens both teams in different ways.

The Cubs are looking to capitalize on their success this season to pursue their second consecutive postseason berth, and Kevin Gausman brings them even closer to making that a reality.

On the other hand, the Blue Jays are in the midst of what can only be described as disappointment incarnate this season as they’ve fallen from the highest of highs at the end of the 2025 season to wallowing in the depths of the American League standings.

They acquired two minor league players who profile as impressive all-around talents (albeit not in the power department), and Toronto could seriously find some success with them over the coming years.

Deadline moves are always magic beans until the results can be seen, however, and there’s no telling exactly what each team will gain from this trade. What’s clear now is that the Cubs are buyers, as expected, and that the Blue Jays are going to be some of the biggest sellers in the league over the next day or so.