Prices For Starting Pitchers Were Reportedly Too High For Cubs At Trade Deadline

As the Chicago Cubs continue to try to chase down the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Central, some of the decisions made at the trade deadline may come back to haunt them.

Overall, the Cubs were active and improved a bit at the trade deadline. However, they were rumored to be interested in several star players and came up empty on that front.

That is disappointing for a team that has been extremely good all season and looked like a World Series-caliber team for most of the year.

While the move to acquire Willi Castro to provide some depth and insurance at third base was a solid pickup, Chicago dropped the ball when it came to the starting pitcher market.

Willi Catr — Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

Despite a lot of names being mentioned in the starting pitcher market before the trade deadline, it ended up being somewhat quiet on that front. In terms of rental players, Merrill Kelly was traded from the Arizona Diamondbacks to the Texas Rangers, and he was arguably the best pitcher moved.

The Cubs were seemingly more focused on pitchers with multiple years of control. However, the price for them was high.

Starting pitcher asking prices were too steep

Jeff Passan of ESPN recently wrote about the asking price for some starters being too high for the Cubs at the trade deadline.

“The Cubs landed Michael Soroka from the Washington Nationals the day before the deadline, but the prices on Ryan, Nationals left-hander MacKenzie Gore, and right-handers Sandy Alcantara and Edward Cabrera of the Miami Marlins were too high for Chicago's liking.”

While Michael Soroka has pitched well of late, but he doesn’t appear to be the caliber of pitcher that Chicago needed. This is a team that had plenty of time to find a true replacement for Justin Steele, but they have seemingly come up short.

Chicago Cubs pitcher Michael Soroka — Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

With Kyle Tucker being in his contract year and his future with the franchise being uncertain, the Cubs should have been very aggressive to get themselves a front-end caliber starter. Even though the price might have been high, that is the clear glaring weakness of the team, and they have the prospects in the system to get a deal done.

Now, if Chicago does end up struggling down the stretch or gets eliminated from the playoffs because of poor starting pitching, the finger will be pointed at Jed Hoyer.

While the Cubs might have improved, they came up short in the most significant area of need at the deadline. Without a front-end starter coming over, this is certainly a failure for the franchise as of now.

Time will tell if Chicago can overcome their rotation lacking, but the front office didn’t provide them with the best chance to win.

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