2-time All-Star could be a short-term, cost-effective Tatsuya Imai backup plan

Last winter, the Chicago Cubs needed to bolster their starting rotation and Walker Buehler needed to re-establish his value coming off a pair of injury-shortened seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The fit was there, but instead, he wound up inking a one-year deal with the Boston Red Sox.

I wouldn't say he quite re-established his value, but Buehler pitched 126 innings - his most in a single season since his 7.1 bWAR 2021 campaign when he finished fourth in National League Cy Young voting. The Red Sox wound up releasing the right-hander in late August and he latched on with the Philadelphia Phillies - amounting to another missed opportunity in the eyes of many Cubs fans at the time.

Cubs, Walker Buehler could be a perfect match this offseason

But all that's in the past. Buehler is, once again, a free agent and the Cubs still have a need in the rotation. FanSided's Robert Murray listed Chicago as one of three teams that might be ready to roll the dice on what he calls "MLB's ultimate buy-low rotation gamble", saying the following:

And the Chicago Cubs could also make sense as a team for Buehler. They are hardly connected to any big names in free agency (with the exception of Alex Bregman). It appears they want to add value with upside, and the work they did with pitchers, most notably Brad Keller and Drew Pomeranz, was noticed by folks around the league. Could Buehler be their next veteran project?

As Murray points out, the Cubs have a type - and Buehler fits the bill. They love these sort of reclamation projects and pitching coach Tommy Hottovy has demonstrated what he's capable of over the years. With a seven-pitch arsenal, could pairing the 31-year-old with Hottovy and a pitching staff full of veterans be the recipe to getting him back on track?

The starting pitching market will soon look vastly different. Friday is the deadline for Tatsuya Imai to sign with an MLB team and once he's off the board, other chips will start to fall. If the Cubs miss out on Imai and balk at the asking price for one of the top starters on the trade market, a flier on Buehler sounds like a perfect fallback plan for the front office.