4 players the Cubs need ASAP - and they don't have to trade for any of them

The Chicago Cubs enter this week's series against the Milwaukee Brewers with needs. Their lead in the NL Central may sit at a season-high 5 1/2 games, but that is more tenuous than it looks.

The obvious short-term need is run production. Since June 4, the Cubs are averaging just three runs per game, making their 6-6 record over that span somewhere between anomalous and freaky. The team slash line over those dozen games: .216/.264/.380 for a .544 OPS – is pretty pitiful.

Unfortunately, there is little the team’s front office can do to spur run production. Seven of the nine everyday lineup positions are occupied by veterans who aren’t going anywhere, and the Cardinals won’t be trading Nolan Arenado to the Cubs anytime soon.

The hard reality is that Dansby Swanson’s either going to hit or he isn’t, and there’s little anyone can do about it either way.

The Cubs do, however, have vehicles for short-term improvement. The addition of four players in particular, to the Wrigley cast, could have a transformative effect on a team facing 25 consecutive games against teams playing above .500.

And the beauty of it is that none of the four will cost the team a player, draft pick or money in exchange. All four merely need to be activated.

Shota Imanaga

Since Shota Imanaga went to the IL with a strained hamstring, the Cubs have turned to rookie Ben Brown with maddeningly inconsistent results.  In his most recent six appearances, Brown is 3-3 with a 6.54 ERA. Brown, who starts Tuesday against the Brewers, has long-term potential but the Cubs are not in a position to wait.

Imanaga has made two satisfactory rehab appearances at the Rookie Ball level, and the projection is that he might be ready before month’s end. As a refresher, Imanaga had a 2.82 ERA and was performing like a staff ace when he went down. His return cannot come soon enough.

Javier Assad

Javier Assad was 7-6 with a 3.73 ERA in 29 starts last season. But he has not thrown a pitch in anger in 2025, sidelined since March with an oblique strain. His role has been filled by a succession of wannabes – Jordan Wicks, Brown and Colin Rea – with varying levels of success.

An April setback has slowed Assad’s return prospects, which are now not projected to occur until after the All-Star break. If the Cubs can cobble together a functioning fifth-man spot until then, Assad can be a vital contributor down the stretch.

Rea, who made the start Sunday against Pittsburgh, has been a credible substitute to date. But his 3.84 ERA is a half point below his career average, suggesting that regression to the mean has to be anticipated soon. Indeed, his 4.15 FIP suggests Rea’s already operating on four-leaf clovers.

 Porter Hodge

Whether Porter Hodge is the closer the Cubs thought they might have found in April remains to be proven. He made 21 appearances before going down with a hip impingement in mid-May, and although his 5.12 ERA looks bad, that’s deceptive as reliever numbers often are. It’s largely the product of two appearances in which he was charged with nine earned runs in one inning.

For his other 19 appearances, Hodge’s ERA is a fraction from 1.00.

Like Imanaga, Hodge is also on a rehab assignment – he’s at Triple-A – with the hope being that his call-up could occur any time. The Cubs' pen has performed admirably in Hodge’s absence, but his return cannot come soon enough.

Miguel Amaya

For the season’s first month, the Cubs’ catching situation – with Miguel Amaya and Carson Kelly both off to strong starts – looked golden. Then Amaya sustained an oblique strain in mid-May, and – whether coincidence or not – Kelly hasn’t been worth anything since.

Given Kelly’s career numbers his hot first month – a 1.347 OPS – was always Fool’s Gold – but Amaya has serious sustained potential. He was hitting.280 with an .819 OPS when he went down, and producing decent defensive numbers to boot.

That being so, returning Amaya to active duty would be the functional equivalent of trading for a frontline catcher without actually giving up anything. The problem is that the most optimistic projection so far is pretty vague: ‘before the All-Star break.’ The Cubs' offense will try to hold out that long.