Cubs Rumors: Team is keeping tabs on a pair of familiar starting pitchers

An interesting report came out from Sunday from MLB Insider Ken Rosenthal and Cubs beat writer Patrick Mooney regarding the current pitching market. The piece discusses teams that have suffered notable pitching injuries that could look to make moves for additional arms. Headlining this piece is the New York Yankees, who could be without ace Gerrit Cole for the 2025 season.

There were, somewhat surprisingly, some nuggets about the Cubs in there:

"Even the Chicago Cubs, relatively healthy at the moment, are among the clubs seeking potential rotation help, a search that might intensify depending on how they fare in their season-opening series against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Tokyo on March 18-19"

Ken Rosenthal and Patrick Mooney

The Cubs are currently without Javier Assad who is working back from an oblique injury, but (knock on wood) the other projected starters and starter candidates/swingmen are okay. The only other snag so far was Justin Steele missing his last start with flu-like symptoms but he is on track to be fine for the Japan trip. Regardless, it seems the Cubs are still keeping tabs on more arms in case something else arises.

The report says veteran right-handers Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson are among the names being monitored by teams - with those two specifically linked to the Cubs, saying they are "keeping Gibson and Lynn on their radar" if they need to make a move. Both noted that, at the moment, Chicago isn't prepared to offer another addition a spot in the rotation - but will continue keeping tabs. It also noted the Cubs were in on left-hander Andrew Heaney before he signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

While the report does not indicate anything is imminent, the Cubs are clearly not ruling anything out in terms of adding someone like Lynn or Gibson. If needed, neither would cost much money at this point and would not require coming off prospects in a trade.

Lynn, 37, is a very familiar face having spent many years with the Cardinals and several on the South Side. Last season in his return to St. Louis he made 23 starts and pitched to a 3.84 ERA, 4.31 FIP, 1.3 WHIP, 8.4 K/9 and 3.4 BB/9 in 117.1 innings. While the overall numbers are solid for an older starter, his xERA was 4.94 and barrel percentage ranked in the seventh percentile. Gibson, 37, also spent last year with St. Louis and pitched to a 4.24 ERA, 4.42 FIP, 1.4 WHIP, 8.0 K/9, 3.6 BB/9 in 169.2 innings (30 starts). His xERA was similar to Lynn at 4.87. Both had pitching run values under the 50th percentile per MLB Statcast metrics in 2024.

Hypothetically adding either of them at this point in their careers does not move the needle much, other than providing some depth and guys to chew up some innings. Lynn was once a legit top-three rotation pitcher and Gibson was an All-Star in 2021, but their MLB tanks are running very low. Their roles would not be prominent if either were signed. While Lynn had overall better numbers last year, Gibson gets more groundballs (36.3 percent groundball rate for Lynn in 2024 vs. 44.8 percent for Gibson in 2024 and 50.1 percent in his career) and the Cubs already have plenty of fly ball pitchers on the starting staff.

In an ideal world, the Cubs avoid any further pitching injuries. However, having alternate options even if they are not really desirable is part of the game with the modern nature of pitching. You'd rather add guys like this at the deadline to buy more innings down the stretch though, not before the season starts.