Brandon Pfaadt's contract extension should establish a blueprint for the Cubs

With the Chicago Cubs' starting rotation needing long-term security, the front office could take a page out of Arizona's playbook and offer Ben Brown a similar deal to Brandon Pfaadt's recent contract extension.

The Diamondbacks announced Pfaadt's five-year, $45 million extension on Friday, which reportedly features a $21 million club option for 2031 and a $25 million mutual option for 2032.

Pfaadt is one year older than Brown (26) and about one year ahead of him in his MLB trajectory, with about a season and a half's worth of starts (50) at the big-league level. At 26 years old, Pfaadt has a career 5.06 ERA with 279 strikeouts in 277.2 innings pitched. Although many outlets have picked Pfaadt to break out this year, Arizona is certainly taking a gamble on him given his shaky track record.

But with the high cost of starting pitching in the current market, it's probably a gamble worth taking to keep a relatively young arm under team control. Especially since Pfaadt has proven he can handle the workload of a full MLB season, making 32 starts and tossing 181.2 innings last season. This extension template could be right for the Cubs to lock up Brown if he can handle a similar workload this year.

Would an extension like this be a fit for Brown?

The main thing Brown needs to prove to warrant an extension like this is the ability to stay healthy and pitch consistently for a full MLB season. Since getting drafted back in 2017, Brown has never thrown more than 104 innings in a season, let alone in the big leagues. Brown should get plenty of runway this year after being named the fifth starter, a job he will likely be able to keep if he replicates his performance from last year (3.58 ERA in 55.1 innings).

But Brown's high velocity, nasty knuckle-curveball, and strikeout ability give the Cubs a power-pitching presence on the mound that the rest of the rotation lacks. Justin Steele and Jameson Taillon are more pitch-to contact guys, who use their low-velocity deliveries to make hitters put the ball in play. While Shota Imanaga and Matthew Boyd have more strikeout potential, they also lack the ability to blow hitters away with velocity.

Brown's pitch mix could make him a huge X-factor for 2025, and the Cubs should think about an extension if he's able to eat over 150 innings. Right now, Brown is under team control through the 2029 season, when the tall right-hander will be 29 years old. Using Pfaadt's deal as a framework, the Cubs could keep Brown for an extra two seasons while guaranteeing him some nice money in what would be his arbitration years.

A move like this could also save the Cubs money in the long run, which fans know all too well they love to do. You don't have to look far to see that starting pitching is very expensive right now. Despite not pitching a full season in six years, Boyd cost the Cubs $29 million for two guaranteed years. Not to mention that the Cubs' rotation looks very uncertain after the 2026 season, when Taillon and potentially Boyd and Imanaga, could all reach free agency. While Steele's contract currently runs through the 2027 campaign.

There are other young starters like Jordan Wicks and Cade Horton coming up, but a contract extension for Brown could be in play after 2025 if the team wants to shore up their long-term security.