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Not much has gone right for the Chicago Cubs in August, and on Friday, Jed Hoyer's front office will be reminded of a move they weren't able to make at the MLB trade deadline. After being added by the Toronto Blue Jays at the deadline, veteran starting pitcher Shane Bieber will make his 2025 debut on Friday.
In the days leading up to the deadline, the Cubs were connected heavily to Bieber. It would've been a gamble as Bieber has been working his way back from Tommy John surgery, but one the Cubs' front office had been hinting at.
One could suggest Bieber was the gamble Jed Hoyer was talking about when explaining the Cubs' decision to trade for Michael Soroka. Unlike Bieber, Soroka had been pitching this season, but has an injury history that reads like a CVS receipt, including having shoulder issues earlier this season. The Cubs knew that risk and still talked about Soroka as if his track record, when healthy, was worth the gamble. 2020 was the last time Soroka had an ERA under 4.50.
Cubs regret is off the charts as deadline target finally takes the field
The Blue Jays took a gamble on Bieber, and the fact that he has been a perennial Cy Young Award candidate when healthy. Meanwhile, the Cubs' gamble on Soroka looks like a disaster, considering he didn't even make it a full start before landing on the IL. Soroka has resumed throwing and appears to be on a path toward returning before the end of the season, but choosing him over Bieber feels like an egregious misevaluation by Hoyer's front office.
It's misevaluations like prioritizing a trade for Soroka that have placed Hoyer under scrutiny as the Cubs slump their way through August. With Hoyer recently signing a multi-year extension, it's hard to project how the Cubs will react to everything that has gone wrong since the deadline. Banking on players returning to their expectations has been a failed practice of Hoyer's before, and an outcome Cubs fans know all too well.