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New York Times
15 hours ago
- Sport
- New York Times
After landing the right free agents, Cubs will turn to more pitching at trade deadline
For fans of the Chicago Cubs, this roaring start to the season has brought another kind of scoreboard watching: Following the underperforming teams that entered the year with playoff expectations, to see which ones crater before the July 31 trade deadline. Have the Atlanta Braves hit 'rock bottom,' or would a deeper spiral put Chris Sale on the trade market? With Corbin Burnes needing Tommy John surgery, could the Arizona Diamondbacks get buried in the National League West and thereby make Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly available in trade negotiations? Will any front office in the American League East concede this year and reload for the future? Stay tuned. Advertisement Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer anticipates it will be a seller's market and recognizes that pitching will be his club's biggest need this summer. Identifying starting pitchers and formulating an individualized player plan also happen to be organizational strengths. Jameson Taillon and Matthew Boyd, who have led the rotation while All-Star pitchers Shota Imanaga and Justin Steele are on the injured list, represent two good examples of the Cubs Way. Tommy Hottovy, the longtime pitching coach who works closely with the front office to evaluate free agents and trade targets, has identified several traits the Cubs generally seek. Taillon and Boyd have command of multiple pitches, an ability to consistently throw strikes, a desire to improve and natural leadership qualities. When Taillon signed a four-year, $68 million contract with the Cubs after the 2022 season, he added the sense of professionalism and expectations that he previously experienced with the New York Yankees. Always eager to talk ball and share information with teammates, Taillon is a great resource for young pitchers. As the Cubs finished with 83 wins and outside the playoffs in the last two seasons, Taillon became a voice of reason, expressing a mixture of disappointment, frustration and optimism. 'There's still a lot of season left, but this is the type of group that I envisioned,' Taillon said. 'This is what I envisioned us doing when I was here. You could feel it in that room. And I know it was probably annoying to hear us keep saying it: 'We know we're right on the verge of it.' And this year, you're just kind of feeling it all coming together.' The Cubs are 40-25 after Sunday's 4-0 loss to the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park, where the American League's best team handed rookie pitcher Cade Horton the first loss of his major-league career and won a three-game series that, for early June, had some playoff parallels. Advertisement To get through October, the Cubs know they will need more pitching. Horton, 23, came into this season with only 122 2/3 professional innings on his resume. Ben Brown has shown flashes of brilliance, matching up against Tigers ace Tarik Skubal and winning at Dodger Stadium, yet at this point, he has a 5.37 ERA and a negative WAR. Colin Rea has been a positive contributor, though his greatest value probably comes as a swingman. Steele, meanwhile, is recovering from season-ending surgery on his left elbow. Javier Assad hasn't thrown a major-league pitch all year while dealing with an oblique injury. Imanaga, who has been sidelined with a strained left hamstring since May 4, is expected to return later this month. In the interim, the Cubs will continue to lean on Taillon (6-3, 3.54 ERA) and Boyd (5-3, 3.01 ERA). Together, they have accounted for 145 innings and 17 of the club's 26 quality starts. Their know-how and attention to detail are also part of the team's identity and culture of preparation. 'To get to where you want to be,' Boyd said, 'you have to approach each day like it's the only thing that matters.' One year ago, Boyd was coming back from Tommy John surgery, throwing in a showcase setting and trying to get traction on a major-league deal. The Cleveland Guardians shrewdly signed Boyd, who wound up starting three playoff games last October. When the Cubs invested in a lefty who has good stuff and a great reputation as a clubhouse influence, they anticipated the rising cost of pitching and finalized a two-year, $29 million contract before the Winter Meetings. As good as Boyd, 34, has been for the Cubs, his last full major-league season came in 2019, a data point that can't be ignored as Hoyer and general manager Carter Hawkins explore their pitching options over the next seven-plus weeks. Advertisement 'I don't know what tomorrow holds, right?' Boyd said. 'I just know what I'm going to do when the ball is in my hand. That's the (way) it was (last May and June) when I didn't have a team and I was throwing in front of teams. I don't know what's going to happen in September. I don't know what's going to happen in August or July or tomorrow, for that matter. 'But when the ball is in my hand, I know what I'm going to do. I know what I'm commanded to do. I'll do that day after day. Whatever comes tomorrow, we'll deal with it.' Given how the Cubs have successfully incorporated Boyd and Taillon — even Imanaga was largely overlooked and undervalued by the rest of the baseball industry when coming out of Japan — it wouldn't be surprising if their pitching infrastructure has some ideas about how to get Sandy Alcantara back on track. Alcantara, a one-time Cy Young Award winner, has a 7.89 ERA through 12 starts after Tommy John surgery with the Miami Marlins. No matter how the Cubs bulk up their pitching staff at the trade deadline, they will keep emphasizing the importance of getting strike one and putting pressure on the opponent. Cubs manager Craig Counsell will continue searching for different ways to get 27 outs, using openers, leveraging the best bullpen arms and relying on a solid game-planning system. Cubs pitchers can also attack hitters, knowing Gold Glove-caliber defenders are positioned all over the field. All those elements aren't entirely new, and reinforcements will be needed, but certain parts of the Cubs' blueprint are being accentuated. 'We had a great core in place,' Taillon said. 'We've added to it really well, and we've played really well, but there's a lot of year left. I think we've still got a lot of great baseball ahead of us.' (Top photo of Jameson Taillon during Saturday's win: Duane Burleson / Getty Images)
New York Times
09-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
How the Cubs put Cade Horton back on the fast track, leading to his debut in New York
Live from New York on Saturday night, Cade Horton is expected to debut as the Chicago Cubs' most-anticipated pitching prospect in a generation. It's not quite to the level of Mark Prior, the No. 2 pick in the 2001 draft who made it to Wrigley Field less than a year later. But in Horton, the Cubs again, finally, see a homegrown pitcher with a wow factor. Advertisement Getting Horton back onto the fast track became a team effort. For all the hype, Horton had a 2024 season to forget. Cubs officials had real questions after seeing an early dip in velocity and a subpar performance during his initial promotion to Triple-A Iowa. A serious injury then wiped out months of much-needed developmental time. But when a pitching prospect is supremely talented, things can happen fast. 'It's been crazy,' Horton told reporters before Friday's game against the Mets at Citi Field. 'It's a testament to all the hard work I put in this offseason, and the strides I've made maturing and really knowing it's my time.' The first-place Cubs didn't promote Horton to save their season in May or give a dragging team a jolt of energy. Rather, the buzz is more about what Horton, 23, could eventually become by October for a legitimate playoff contender. 'He's been pitching fantastic,' Cubs pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said. 'For a guy who battled some ups and downs last year, some mechanical stuff and some struggles, he took the offseason and came into spring training ready to work. He's picked up kind of where we all hoped he would heading into the season. He's gone down and performed at a high level. We've challenged him with some things to continue to get better, and he keeps stepping up in everything we give him.' That collaborative process began in earnest during spring training in Arizona, where the group of staffers working on the Horton plan included Hottovy, Cubs assistant pitching coach Casey Jacobson, director of pitching Ryan Otero, special assistant Tyler Zombro, pitching coordinator Matt Hinkley and Dr. Mike Sonne, the organization's pitching scientist. The consensus was that some changes had happened to Horton's delivery and fastball profile as he tried to push through an injury-plagued season. The program included input on biomechanics, recommendations from the strength and conditioning department, and a general awareness that Horton shouldn't be rushed. Advertisement 'Cade's a good enough athlete to adapt,' Zombro said. 'Everybody got together and we had a brain trust on this. We went to Cade with some slight modifications of things we could very slightly tweak to get the velo and shape back to where we wanted.' In 2023, Horton had cruised through stops at three minor-league affiliates. It was not an exaggeration to call him one of the best pitching prospects in the sport, a notch or two below Paul Skenes. Horton's draft status (No. 7 pick in 2022) and the industry's prospect rankings reflected that upside. That momentum stopped last year with the pain he felt around his right shoulder due to a subscapularis strain. Restarting presented a different challenge. When a pitcher returns from injury, it's not unusual to see the arm slot move because so much of the throwing is done on flat ground during rehab. For Horton in particular, that slot had shifted slightly. The Cubs referenced older KinaTrax data that measured variables such as arm angle, spine angle and the timing when the front foot plants. That information added to the different perspectives — medical outlook, high performance, pitching instruction — working toward the same goal. 'Within a week, Cade turned a corner,' Zombro said, 'and the data was indicative of his 2023 self. He's done a great job staying on top of the medical stuff. Hopefully, he feels like he's in a pretty good spot.' Cade Horton, HELLO.#SpringBreakout | @Cubs — MLB (@MLB) March 16, 2025 Horton put himself in position to capitalize on the opportunity when Shota Imanaga recently joined Justin Steele and Javier Assad on the injured list, creating an opening in the major-league rotation. The Cubs are trying to manage the injury risk moving forward, tracking Horton's activity in the weight room, testing his range of motion, monitoring the arm slot and analyzing the pitch data. Advertisement That attention to detail requires a certain level of cohesiveness across the organization. To get buy-in from the player, the Cubs aim to present cross-referenced information from various departments rather than simply telling a pitcher what to do. The club is not putting a hard cap on Horton's innings this year, either, believing that daily workload data is more predictive than pitch counts or innings totals. Garrett Crochet, for example, had never started a major-league game before last season. Yet even while pitching for the worst team in baseball history, Crochet accounted for 32 starts, represented the Chicago White Sox at the All-Star Game and increased his year-over-year innings from 25 (including 12 1/3 in the minors) to 146. The Boston Red Sox saw enough to make a blockbuster trade for Crochet and reward him with a six-year, $170 million contract extension. Horton is not yet in Crochet's stratosphere. But it is another way to think about how pitching philosophies have evolved. Some concepts, though, are still timeless. During the monotony of spring training, Horton drew praise for blending into the clubhouse and carrying himself in a professional manner that veteran players respect. 'I like Cade a lot,' Cubs pitcher Jameson Taillon said. 'He's definitely got a lot of traits that you want in top-of-the-rotation starters. He works extremely hard. He's dedicated to his craft. He's committed to being really good. In spring training, he made a pretty good impression on a lot of guys, just by showing up early, staying quiet, doing his work. Obviously, his tools speak for themselves. He's got a big fastball, a great slider. When the time's right, we'd welcome him with open arms.' That time is now. While player development should be a continuous process at the major-league level, Cubs officials have also shown that their patience will only go so far this year. Matt Shaw, the Opening Day third baseman, received 68 plate appearances before the club demoted the top prospect to Triple A in mid-April, demonstrating a sense of urgency. Ben Brown, a young pitcher with a profile roughly similar to Horton's, recently got this performance review from Cubs manager Craig Counsell: 'We need better.' Brown has shown his manager more in his two starts since those frank comments. While Steele was once given an extended opportunity to start after the 2021 trade deadline, and eventually blossomed into an All-Star, the Cubs right now can't afford to give Horton the same latitude. Advertisement 'He has to earn his spot up here,' Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said. 'He has to continue to develop after the majority of his season last year was lost.' Horton's fastball may not be back to the 2023 version, but it cuts and breaks vertically in ways that should play against the world's best hitters. His ability to supinate allows him to have two plus breaking balls. He still has a changeup and a curveball in his back pocket, though those pitches have not been featured as prominently this season. As always, the game will tell Horton what he needs to work on next. That wasn't going to keep happening in Des Moines. Bright lights, big city, it's time to see what he's got. 'There are absolutely things he needs to keep improving on,' Counsell said. 'Some of those things don't necessarily show up at Triple A, but they'll show up immediately here. 'I'm optimistic, yeah, absolutely. There's no question, a healthy Cade Horton, he's going to impact this team.'
New York Times
08-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
What Ryan Pressly is working to correct after a historically bad outing
CHICAGO — Just when it seemed the Cubs had finally found a group of trusted relievers, their veteran closer delivered a historically bad performance on Tuesday evening. In the 11th inning of a 14-5 loss to the San Francisco Giants, Ryan Pressly faced eight batters, all of whom reached base and eventually scored. It was a disastrous outing that raised questions about Pressly's effectiveness, particularly his ability to miss bats. Before Wednesday's 3-1 loss to the Giants — a game in which five relievers worked four shutout frames — pitching coach Tommy Hottovy met with reporters at Wrigley Field. Hottovy suggested Pressly needed to get more in-game work regardless of the situation. But did that mean Pressly's struggles were pushing him out of a high-leverage role for the time being? 'No,' Hottovy said. 'I just think we have to get him consistent work. That's the bottom line.' Pressly has issued walks to 12.1 percent of batters, well above his career rate of 7.2 percent. In his 12 previous years in the big leagues, he had just one season with a walk rate above 9 percent (10.1 percent in 2015). He has also given up a .327 batting average and an .869 OPS. Pressly's biggest issue is the lack of strikeouts. On Tuesday, he threw 26 pitches and drew just one whiff. On the season, Pressly's swinging-strike rate is 5.7 percent and his strikeout rate is 8.1 percent. Those numbers were 12.6 percent and 23.8 percent, respectively, last season and peaked at 17.7 percent and 35.7 percent, respectively, in 2022. Among eligible relievers, only one has a worse strikeout rate and three have a worse swinging-strike rate. Pressly's fastball is down a half tick in miles per hour from last year, continuing a recent trend. But he's never been heavily reliant on velocity because he has two plus breaking balls, both of which seem to be spinning similarly to the past. Hottovy doesn't believe it's a stuff issue. Rather, hitters are picking up Pressly's pitches earlier than they used to. PATTY BARRELS. GIANTS LEAD. 💪 — SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) May 7, 2025 'I believe in deception factors that don't maybe show up in normal mechanical breakdowns or even in pitch data,' Hottovy said. 'He can have good pitch data, but I do believe there are some mechanical things that hitters are just seeing the ball a little early. When you can have good pitch data, good velocity, but a hitter sees it a tick early, whether it's subconscious or they're actually picking it up, it just gives them more time.' Hottovy said this problem is different than tipping pitches. 'Tipping would be more where they literally know what's coming,' Hottovy said. 'We're on top of making sure that's not happening. He's very astute of what he's doing. Not to say there aren't minor things that pop up. But I'm thinking more about how the delivery happens. When a guy's front shoulder flies open early, that shows the hitter and gives them more time.' Hottovy also believes that hitters are very familiar with how Pressly pitches. He wants hitters to chase his breaking balls down. They know that. Hottovy wants to combat that by having Pressly use his fastball up in the strike zone more often. Pressly had his right knee drained on April 22 to relieve some discomfort. On Tuesday night, Pressly and manager Craig Counsell said that wasn't an issue, and Hottovy reiterated that the veteran is feeling healthy. But Hottovy did say that they lost time to get in work while the knee was bothering him. 'It's the balance,' Hottovy said. ''Ok, what do I need to do today to get better but also be available to pitch?' And when you're dealing with a knee, a physical ailment, that's gonna shut down a lot of the work you do. Let's make sure you feel good. We probably missed a week there where we weren't getting the consistent work that we wanted to get in.' It's also likely that while Pressly's knee was hurting, he altered his normal delivery to compensate for the issue. 'He's feeling great with the knee,' Hottovy said. 'What always happens when you deal with lower-body, minor injuries is mechanics — you form bad habits. So it's kind of like, 'I feel good now. Now I have to work back through all the habits I was kind of compensating for.' We see that with guys with these types of injuries.' Tuesday marked Pressly's third appearance in two weeks. The combination of the knee draining and the Cubs not playing many close games led to a lack of consistent work. Hottovy expects that to change as they look to get Pressly in games more often, regardless of the score, so he can get locked in with his mechanics. 'There's going to be opportunities where 'Hey, if you haven't thrown in a couple days, we need to get your work day in,'' Hottovy said. 'It might not be a high-leverage situation, but we need to get the reps, because he's going to be better down the road by pitching more. We just gotta kind of figure out how to navigate that in a series.' The good news for the Cubs is that they have multiple relievers pitching well. They've all had hiccups, but they seem to have hit their strides. Porter Hodge would be the obvious choice if Pressly is removed from the closer's role, either temporarily or permanently. Daniel Palencia, Brad Keller, Caleb Thielbar and Drew Pomeranz also have been strong. Julian Merryweather has been solid, and Gavin Hollowell has been effective in his brief stint. The Cubs, like most contenders, will also likely look for relief help at the July 31 trade deadline. Ultimately, the Cubs would love for Pressly to regain his deception and find his best self, but it appears they have options if he can't. They know, regardless, that Pressly will do whatever he can to regain his effectiveness. 'The best part about Ryan was he was here at 8 o'clock (Wednesday) morning to go out to the bullpen and do dry work,' Hottovy said. 'As a coach, you want to be around those guys who want to continue to get better, who do whatever they have to do to do what's best for them and the team. For him to take that rough night, he's like, 'I didn't sleep last night anyway, let's get to work.'' (Photo of Pressly, left: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
