Cubs Rumors: Chicago reportedly interested in oft-injured former Yankees reliever

The right-hander recently held a showcase and a number of clubs came away 'impressed'.

Jim McIsaac/GettyImages

Nothing perks Jed Hoyer's ears up quite like the words 'reclamation project' or 'bounceback candidate' - and a new report connects the Chicago Cubs to former New York Yankees and Oakland Athletics right-hander Lou Trivino, who hasn't pitched in the big leagues since 2022.

Trivino, who turned 33 in October, suffered an elbow injury ahead of the 2023 campaign and never made it back, requiring Tommy John surgery that shelved him for the bulk of last year. He managed to make 11 minor league appearances with New York, but never returned to the big-league club.

During that 2022 season, Trivino was lights-out after coming to the Bronx in a deadline deal with Oakland, pitching to a 1.66 ERA down the stretch. Accompanying metrics painted a slightly less rosy picture of his body of work, but we're still talking about a guy with a career 3.90 FIP and 109 ERA+ across nearly 300 innings.

With at least six clubs interested, the Cubs may have to move quickly if they want to land the sinker-baller. In his last full season, Trivino ranked near the top of the league in ground ball rate and his fastball velocity was a big plus - so seeing his sinker already at 94 MPH bodes well if you're hoping he can be at 100 percent over the course of the entire 2025 season.

While a Scott signing would have been a total game-changer, there are paths to success with a bullpen full of less-flashy additions - and Trivino, despite being an above-average reliever in his five MLB seasons, would certainly fall into that bucket. Adding Trivino for a seventh-inning role, then slotting in Porter Hodge in the eighth and handing the ball off to someone like Kyle Finnegan or Carlos Estevez in the ninth would be far from a disaster.

Then again, going out and adding Trivino, while also pushing in your trade chips on Padres closer Robert Suarez would take things up a notch further, giving Craig Counsell a shut-down arm to pencil in for the ninth, bringing some badly-needed stability to the equation after early-season bullpen meltdowns proved costly in 2024.

Schedule