Even After Tough Outing From Cabrera, Rotation Has Been Cubs’ Bright Spot

With multiple Chicago Cubs starters already on the injured list, the team has needed every other starter it has to step up even more.

But even with those injuries cropping up, the rotation has been the Cubs’ bright spot to start the season. The good news is that, at least through his first two outings, Edward Cabrera featured heavily in that.

The performance is certainly not limited to Chicago’s biggest offseason pitching acquisition, of course.

Shota Imanaga has started to put last year’s struggles in the rearview. Jameson Taillon has pitched like a veteran starter who consistently gives him team a chance to win. Colin Rea and Javier Assad both stepped up in their first starts since re-entering the rotation.

That group, along with injured starters Cade Horton and Matthew Boyd, had excelled as a whole through the Cubs’ first 13 games. Entering Saturday, the rotation’s combined 2.47 ERA was the National League’s lowest mark (second-lowest in MLB).

”Everybody going out there is just as important as the next guy,” manager Craig Counsell said pregame Saturday. “We’ve gotten very good starts from our starting pitching. Our starting pitching has been excellent. In the course of the season, we got 150 more of them, so it’s a huge part of the game. They’re pitching at a really high level and keeping us in games and keeping runs off the board. They’re doing a great job.“

Facing the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday afternoon at Wrigley Field, though, Cabrera struggled to keep runners off base. He managed to work through the traffic enough to still deliver five innings, but he finished allowing three runs on eight hits and three walks in Chicago‘s 4-3, extra-inning loss loss.

”His command was a little shaky, frankly, in the Cleveland game [on April 5]; just, it was 32 degrees, and he got away with some things, I think,” Counsell said. “But his command got him into a lot of bad counts.”

Cabrera’s nasty changeup didn’t record the usual making-hitters-look-foolish numbers. The velocity on 43 total changeups was only fractionally lower, and the movement profile looked similar to his previous two outings.

Yet, it recorded only a 22.7% whiff rate — well below its 35.1% rate entering Saturday.

“What can I tell you? It’s not invisible, so there’s gonna be some days that that’s gonna happen,” Cabrera said through interpreter Fredy Quevedo Jr.

For Cabrera, it seemed like a combination of the Pirates seeing him well and him not having his best command. But despite giving up each of his first three runs as a Cub on Saturday, still managing to get through the fifth inning was big. In this day and age, three runs over five frame is still giving your team a chance to win.

There’s obviously a lot of potential for better in Cabrera, too.

He was strong in his first two starts, both scoreless. In fact, in his first start against the Los Angeles Angels on March 30, he needed only 80 pitches to get through six one-hit innings. Walks were an issue his next start against the Cleveland Guardians on April 5, but he still finished with 5 2/3 shutout frames.

When the Cubs acquired him from the Miami Marlins — giving up top prospect Owen Caissie in the process — they envisioned a potential top-of-the-rotation arm. Though his performance Saturday didn’t live up to that, he still showed the ability to grind through a minimum of five innings.

If that’s on the lower end of starts Cabrera gives Chicago, then that’s a blessing. Because the Cubs are going to need a lot more good from him and the rest of the rotation.

State of the Rest of the Rotation

Boyd is currently on the 15-day IL with a left biceps strain. The belief is it’ll be a minimum stint, but he’s not eligible to return until April 18. That means at least one more turn filling in for Boyd in the rotation.

Horton is obviously a different story. While it’s still unclear what exactly his upcoming elbow surgery will be, he will miss the rest of 2026. That means finding that expected production elsewhere, which isn’t an easy task.

The still-available arms believe they have the right pieces to make up for it.

”Those pitchers that are down, they’re stars, right?” Cabrera said. “Those are great, great pitchers. But for me, I just try to go out there and try to give it my absolute best to be able to help the team and put them in a good position.”

That’s what Chicago has gotten nearly every time out from its starters. Even after Cabrera’s tougher outing, the rotation’s ERA was still at 2.67, a top-five mark in the majors as of Saturday evening.

The offense has struggled, and the bullpen hasn’t exactly found its rhythm yet.

Both groups believe success will come. But Cubs starters continuing to be the bright spot in the meantime would be a massive boost.