The Cubs are “already browsing the trade market looking for pitching help” following the unexpected loss of Justin Steele, according to Bruce Levine of 670 The Score and Marquee Sports Network. That report came out shortly before their acquisition of Drew Pomeranz from the Mariners, though it’s hard to see the 36-year-old southpaw as much more than a lottery ticket. Pomeranz hasn’t pitched in MLB since 2021 and has only logged 29 total minor league innings in that time.
A series of injuries and procedural moves have conspired against him, but he put up really good numbers working exclusively as a reliever with the Padres in ’20 and ’21. But assuming the Cubs don’t view him as the missing piece, they’re going to need to be more active in search of pitching help.
Sandy Alcantara is the most obvious name, and we’ve also looked at Twins pitchers Pablo López and Griffin Jax. As uncommon as intradivision deals are, the Cardinals could be a match for righties Sonny Gray or Erick Fedde. The Guardians just DFA’d righty Triston McKenzie, whose numbers looked very ugly through four relief appearances, but he’s in the same boat as Pomeranz in terms of outlook.
While they wait on the trade market to materialize, or even if they fast-forward to make a move well before the deadline, there is an intriguing internal option emerging. You already know from the headline that it’s not Cade Horton, who we looked at yesterday, so there’s no need to be coy. Righty Chris Flexen doesn’t have much in his MLB career to indicate he could be an impact starter, but his results at Triple-A Iowa so far are beyond impressive.
The 30-year-old has a 0.40 ERA with no home runs allowed through four starts with the I-Cubs, and he’s got just under 650 innings of big league time under his belt. While that doesn’t outweigh his first-percentile pitching run value from 33 appearances and 160 innings on the South Side last year, there’s something to be said for learning from failure and then getting into a much better environment.
Flexen presents incredibly low risk because, for lack of a better term, he’s wholly expendable. Even if it’s just as a fresh arm to pick up a start or two as a fill-in or as a piggyback guy to stretch the bullpen for a while, he could take some pressure off the front office as they search for a higher-profile addition. With other recent call-ups having struggled mightily before heading back down, Flexen could add a small measure of consistency to a staff that has been hit or miss so far.
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