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The Rundown: Cubs a Battleground of Conflicting Forces, Hoyer Seeking Multiple Pitchers, Trade Rumors Aplenty

Photo of Michael Canter Michael CanterJuly 28, 2026

“Because I’m easy come, easy go; little high, little low. Any way the wind blows doesn’t really matter to me.” – Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen

It’s a minor miracle that the Cubs continue to play winning baseball despite their season-long rotation issues. Chicago has won 16 of its last 24, a subset that includes a 23-3 win over the Padres followed by a 17-1 loss to the Cardinals. This is a team that also boasts two 10-game winning streaks and one 10-game losing streak. Still, they’ve got a 92% chance to make the playoffs and a 5.5% chance to win the World Series, per Baseball-Reference. Much like the case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, your 2026 Chicago Cubs are a battleground of conflicting forces. Bismillah!

Such unscientific balderdash will confound any armchair data analyst, but we’re looking at a team with a patchwork rotation that has enough offense to unleash holy hell on any opposing pitcher. Last night’s 7-3 win over St. Louis was powered by Alex Bregman and Nico Hoerner, who combined to go 8-for-10 with five runs scored, two doubles, two home runs, and six RBI. That made a winner out of David Peterson, whose acquisition looks much more important now that the Cubs have DFA’d Jameson Taillon.

Peterson is 3-1 with the Cubs, and his unsightly 5.14 FIP is nearly two runs better than Taillon’s. Chicago was desperate for rotation help before cutting Taillon, and a more palpable panic is setting in. Chicago is open for business, and reportedly nobody is untouchable. As much as I applaud the work that analysts like ESPN’s Jeff Passan do, Jed Hoyer is not going to overpay for anybody, particularly a rental. Starters with club control are even more expensive. More succinctly, those same warring elements that define Hoyer’s current roster will rear their ugly heads in discussions with rival front offices.

Chicago’s president of baseball operations has always been as cool as a cucumber when it comes to negotiations. That said, he gave up Owen Caissie to acquire Edward Cabrera over the winter but couldn’t pull the trigger on a similar deal last July. You can’t store wins in January when you need to stack them in August, September, and hopefully October. That, however, is the antithesis of operations in Chicago’s front office: A refusal to pick up an extra win this year while sacrificing five wins in 2032. Getting to 90 wins with a rotation that includes Peterson, Taillon, and Colin Rea makes for a nice story, but it’s a recipe for postseason disaster. It’s a suboptimal way to navigate the stretch run, too.

We are six days shy of this year’s trade deadline, and Hoyer basically needs two starters to slot somewhere between Matthew Boyd and Shōta Imanaga, with Peterson dropping to fifth in Chicago’s rotation. Plenty of available pitching exists, but bidding will be extremely high for even the more marginal options. Hoyer’s inner demons have long been caged, and it’s true that nobody can hold opposing truths without first living in the moment. Ol’ Jed needs to let go of his restricting algorithms and quiet his ego’s need for logical answers. True success requires full commitment rather than half-hearted effort teaming with self-doubt.

Cubs News & Notes

Ball Four

Kerry Wood is still baffling batters.

Central Intelligence

How About That!

Dan Szymborski of FanGraphs posted some hypothetical trades that should give you a good idea of this year’s market.

The Brewers are expected to be aggressive this week, and they should be.

NFL star Saquon Barkley backs the MLBPA in its resistance to a salary cap.

The White Sox are a hot team when it comes to potential deadline additions, at least among ESPN analysts. Proposed deals have the ChiSox trading for Miller, Brady Singer, and Clay Holmes.

The Padres may trade Miller to improve their chances of making the playoffs this year. San Diego has a thin rotation and could seek two young starters in exchange for baseball’s best reliever.

The Marlins are not inclined to move top starter Sandy Alcántara, but they are fielding requests about Braxton Garrett.

The Red Sox could seek Zach Neto of the Angels as a potential shortstop upgrade. Boston is also interested in CJ Abrams and Jeremy Peña.

The Astros are reportedly seeking outfield help.

Three from the Bill Chuck Files

  1. The Dodgers are on pace to win 104 games. They’ve never won a World Series when winning 100+ regular season games.
  2. Salvador Perez is the new home run king in Kansas City. El Niño hit his 318th career tater on Saturday, breaking a tie with George Brett.
  3. Finally, a quote from Mr. Chuck himself. “As of today, I would vote for Pete Crow-Armstrong over Shohei Ohtani for NL MVP.”

Apropos of Nothing

Continuing to beat the Cardinals gets the Cubs theoretically closer to acquiring Detmers. St. Louis is now seven games behind Chicago in the Wild Card race, and if they’re not sellers today, they should be by the weekend. Both teams are reportedly interested in the Angels lefty, so pedal to the metal for three more games in The Lou.

Son of Apropos

Taillon will get a ring and a World Series share if the Cubs win it all. He was an anchor in all the wrong ways this season, but nobody loved being a Cub as much as that guy. I hope his now-former teammates have some nice parting gifts in store.

Extra Innings

Bregman now has 19 RBI in his last 20 games.

They Said It

  • “We had to make a hard decision as to whether we thought Jameson was going to pitch again. With where we’re at in the season and with what’s gone on in his season, we just didn’t feel like it was going to happen again.” – Counsell
  • “I’ve been around long enough to know that I’m hurting the team and have been for a little while now. I’m not naive to that at all.” – Taillon
  • “Definitely a really tough day for everybody because of who [Jameson] is and what he means and has meant to us. Away from baseball [he] will be a lifelong friend. I will miss him very much.” – Ian Happ
  • “I’m excited to welcome anybody that finds themselves in a Cub uniform. But for now, and until the deadline, I love what we got. And I love what we’re doing.” – Crow-Armstrong
  • “We believe are good enough to win the World Series. It doesn’t really matter what everybody else says. We’re good enough to win the division. We plan to. If the front office adds, it’ll be welcome because that means we’re going to get better.” – Boyd

Tuesday Walk-Up Song

Something troglodytic, shall we say?

Photo of Michael Canter Michael CanterJuly 28, 2026
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