3 offseason moves the Cubs probably wish they would have made right now

Entering the 2026 season, Jed Hoyer and the Chicago Cubs' front office had their offseason work roundly praised by pundits in the baseball world. In their defense, Hoyer's moves looked strong on paper. Edward Cabrera was the sort of controllable, high-upside arm the Cubs had long been craving. Alex Bregman was an established All-Star who would fit right into the team's culture. And Hoyer even went to a second year for a relief pitcher.

None of that was enough to prevent the Cubs from watching their season begin to spiral in May, however. While injuries are at least partially to blame for the team's recent struggles, and their two ten-game win streaks can't be completely ignored, it's clear things have gone sideways on the north side at this point. What moves could the Cubs have made this offseason to prevent this outcome?

Munetaka Murakami would've been an even better rookie DH for the Cubs than Moises Ballesteros

The Cubs can't complain too much about their production at DH given the emergence of Moises Ballesteros as an impressive rookie bat. A .787 OPS in his first 65 MLB games is nothing to sneeze at, and there's every reason to believe that Ballesteros can be a valuable big league hitter for years to come. With that being said, the Cubs offense clearly needs some thump that Ballesteros hasn't been able to provide in recent weeks.

While outbidding the Phillies for Kyle Schwarber may have been little more than a pipe dream, it's been clear for a while now that the team lacks a true middle-of-the-order slugger. Frustratingly for Cubs fans, the south side actually welcomed a player just like that into the fold this winter when the White Sox inked Nippon Professional Baseball superstar Munetaka Murakami to a surprisingly affordable two-year deal.

Since arriving in Chicago, Murakami has crushed an utterly absurd 19 home runs in just 235 trips to the plate. Even with a hefty 32.8% strikeout rate, his power has been good enough to muster an OPS over .900. That's the sort of production that would've been easily worth leaving Ballesteros at Triple-A to try and work on his defense at catcher for another year or so. Outbidding Jerry Reinsdorf's White Sox shouldn't be hard to do, and it's frankly embarrassing that the Cubs failed to do so with Murakami.

Foster Griffin would've been an asset for the Cubs' beleaguered rotation

Cubs fans are well aware at this point that Hoyer's front office isn't the type to dive head-first into the market for superstar pitchers. Someone like Dylan Cease was never likely to be on the table for Chicago this winter. Even so, it would've certainly been feasible for the club to do better than bringing back Shota Imanaga and adding Edward Cabrera to the mix.

Both have been decent mid-rotation arms for the Cubs so far this year, and Imanaga in particular is one of the few healthy pitchers the team has at its disposal for the time being. Supplementing them with another arm would've helped protect against some of this season's injury woes, however, and it would've been entirely possible to do on the cheap. The rebuilding Nationals signed former big leaguer Foster Griffin out of NPB for just one year and $5.5M guaranteed.

Griffin, whose journey back to the majors was recently covered by Spencer Nusbaum of The Athletic, was coming off three successful seasons with NPB's Yomiuri Giants, and now he's turning in effective starts for the Nationals in the majors. His 3.63 ERA through 11 starts for D.C. might not be star production, but it would be very welcome on the injury-wracked Cubs nonetheless. That's even more true when it comes at a price tag equivalent to what Chicago is paying Colin Rea (4.83 ERA) this year.

Luke Weaver could've actually offered what the Cubs are looking for from Phil Maton

Signing veteran reliever Phil Maton to a two-year deal might have been Hoyer's most out-of-character splurge of the winter. Unfortunately, one look at the numbers could tell you that it simply hasn't panned out yet. The righty has a 7.88 ERA in 18 appearances so far this year with ugly peripherals, and he's already been to the injured list once so far.

It's not hard to find a better option than Maton elsewhere in last winter's free agent market, but one that wouldn't have even broken the bank is now-Mets righty Luke Weaver. Signed to a two-year deal worth $22M by New York, Weaver has turned in a 3.22 ERA with a 25.3% strikeout rate and a 50.0% ground ball rate this year. He also has the poise to handle high-leverage situations, as he showed in a recent appearance against the Yankees covered by MLB.com's Anthony DiComo.

Granted, Weaver wound up costing a bit more in free agency than the $14.5M it took to land Maton. But if Hoyer was going to splurge for a meaningful set-up man for Daniel Palencia rather than just rolling the dice on reclamation projects, he should've been willing to spend just a little more to get a significantly more accomplished veteran.

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