CHICAGO — If there was any doubt as to where Jed Hoyer and the Cubs would prioritize their winter plans, he cleared them up Tuesday at the General Managers Meetings in Las Vegas.
Pitching, pitching and more pitching.
[MORE: Coverage from the GM Meetings in Las Vegas]
“I think that’s obvious — look at our depth chart,” the Cubs president of baseball operations told reporters at the yearly event, hosted this year at the Cosmopolitan. “We’re in pretty good position on the position player side — on the pitching side, we’re thinner.
“I think that’s going to be our focus, and I expect to explore trades; I expect to explore free agency — both at the top of the market but also looking at minor league free agency.”
Hoyer annually preaches the constant need to stockpile arms – the grind of a 162-game major league season means teams churn through arms. In 2025, the Cubs depleted their reserves, especially in the rotation.
The Cubs reached the playoffs for the first time in a full season since 2018, but by the end of their run to Game 5 of the NL Division Series had just two starting pitchers that they trusted to open playoff games: Jameson Taillon and Matthew Boyd.
[Cubs 2026 roster projection: Where things stand as offseason kicks off]
Shota Imanaga’s struggles to end the year were even more pronounced in the playoffs as he made just one start in the Cubs’ eight-game postseason run. Cade Horton, the breakout rookie star who carried the rotation in the second half, landed on the injured list after his final regular-season start and did not pitch in October. Michael Soroka, the biggest splash the front office made at the trade deadline to buoy the rotation, was injured two innings into his Cubs tenure and was a multi-inning reliever in the playoffs.
The Cubs need pitching and plenty of it. That could come in the form of Imanaga, who was extended the one-year qualifying offer last week and has until Nov. 18 to accept or decline it. But regardless of Imanaga’s future with the Cubs, they’ll need more arms.
That comes in the bullpen, too.
Cubs manager Craig Counsell had a five-man leverage group that he trusted in October – right-handers Daniel Palencia, Brad Keller and Andrew Kittredge and left-handers Caleb Thielbar and Drew Pomeranz. Palencia is the only one still with the team – Kittredge was traded back to Baltimore, and the rest are free agents.
It’s an arms race, quite literally, and Hoyer and the Cubs know they’ll have to accumulate plenty – no matter how they get them – if they hope to return to the playoffs in 2026 and make an even deeper run.
“Last year in a lot of ways, we gave Boyd a multi-year deal, and then we got a lot of value out of Brad Keller, who was a minor-league free agent. Drew Pomeranz — we made a tiny trade for,” Hoyer told reporters. “I think all of those transactions matter. I expect to be really active in doing that.
“On the pitching side more than the hitting side.”
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