Cubs miss out on rumored top free agent target, who joins the Red Sox instead

A logical fit for a team in need of a top-of-the-rotation arm not seeking a long-term guarantee, Walker Buehler made all the sense in the world for the Chicago Cubs. But he won't call Chicago home in 2025, instead signing a one-year, $21.05 million deal with the Boston Red Sox.

Buehler battled injuries in the regular season but returned in October to play a critical role for the Los Angeles Dodgers as they brought home their second World Series championship in the last five years.

After a blow-up in the NLDS against the division-rival Padres, Buehler settled in nicely, throwing 10-straight scoreless innings across two starts and a relief appearances, showing what once made him one of the game's best up-and-coming young arms. It wasn't too long ago, 2021, when Buehler finished fourth in NL Cy Young voting on the heels of a 7.1 bWAR campaign in which he piled up 212 punchouts in 207 1/3 innings of work for Los Angeles.

Since then, things have been rockier. Buehler has made a total of 28 starts since the start of the 2022 season - and underwent multiple elbow procedures, including his second Tommy John, over that span. He missed all of 2023 and returned this season to varying levels of effectiveness.

The Dodgers elected not to extend him a qualifying offer which actually wound up being the exact dollar amount he signed with the Red Sox for. The team reportedly felt that was far and above what he'd get on the open market given his struggles the last few years, but that turned out to not be the case - at least not on a one-year deal.

Cubs will continue to look for rotation and bullpen upgrades

We won't get into what the move means for the Red Sox - but instead, we'll circle back on the Cubs, a team that had reported interest in the former Vanderbilt standout. Chicago currently has a projected rotation of Justin Steele, Shota Imanaga, Jameson Taillon, Matthew Boyd and some combination of Jordan Wicks and Javier Assad.

Hoyer is focused on using the savings from this month's Cody Bellinger trade to bolster the pitching staff and, even after a hot pursuit of Jesus Luzardo fell through, reportedly due to medical concerns, there's no reason to think the Cubs are done adding starting pitching.

With free agents fetching top dollar across the league, expect the Cubs to work the trade market to address this need. Names like Pablo Lopez have surfaced as being available, and more teams may dangle starters to see if they can get teams that don't want to overpay on the open market to bite in the weeks to come.