Cubs Acquire Kevin Gausman

Now in his age-35 season, Gausman has a 4.38 ERA, 23.5% strikeout rate, and 6.7% walk rate over 127 1/3 innings.  The increase from his 3.59 ERA in 2025 could be chalked up to some batted-ball variance (.262 BABIP in 2025, .313 BABIP this year), and the only major difference from last season is that opposing hitters are having a lot more success against Gausman’s offspeed pitches.

While a small sample size of 15 innings, it is perhaps worth noting that Gausman has a 9.60 ERA in four career starts as an opposing pitcher at Wrigley Field.  The most recent of those outings came on June 19 when Gausman was tagged for seven runs in only two innings of work.  By coincidence, Gausman could line up to face his old team this Thursday when the Jays visit Wrigley for a make-up game from that June series.

Since Opening Day 2021, only Logan Webb has thrown more regular-season innings than Gausman’s 1053 frames.  This kind of durability is just what the Cubs need for their injury-plagued rotation, and Gausman will join Shota Imanaga and Matthew Boyd as the projected top three.  Peterson has pitched well since joining the team, Edward Cabrera is on a minor league rehab assignment and the Cubs still hope Ben Brown can return from a stress reaction in his neck to contribute some more innings before 2026 is over.

Between this group, Colin Rea, and Javier Assad, Chicago has a good deal of starting depth on hand, but more arms will be targeted before tomorrow’s deadline.  Reports indicated that the Cubs were looking to add either one starter and two relievers or two starters and one reliever, and the biggest piece of that puzzle is now in place via Gausman.

There hasn’t been any indication of any money going to Chicago in the deal, so it appears as though the Cubs will assume the roughly $7.3MM remaining of Gausman’s $23MM salary.  MLBTR’s Payroll Tracker estimates the Cubs’ tax number at just over $252.36MM — over the $244MM tax threshold but under the $264MM secondary penalty.  This estimate doesn’t yet reflect Gausman’s added salary, but the Cubs will still be under the $264MM mark, which is noteworthy since the Cubs have only once in their history (2019) surpassed the second tax penalty barrier.

Moving Gausman gets the Jays a bit closer to ducking under the top penalty tier of $304MM, but the savings are pretty negligible since the Cubs covered only a bit of Jameson Taillon‘s remaining salary in the other Chicago/Toronto trade earlier today.  Taillon figures to cover some of Gausman’s innings as the Jays play out the stretch, and get a look at the two new position-player prospects in their system.

Southisene is the higher-regarded of the duo, ranked 10th on Baseball America’s list of the top 30 Cubs prospects and 13th on MLB Pipeline’s list.  A fourth-round pick for the Cubs in the 2024 draft, Southisene played mostly second base in his first pro season at A-level Myrtle Beach, and has played primarily as a shortstop this year in A-ball and high-A ball.

Evaluators are mixed on whether he’s a better fit at second or short, and overall, BA feels Southisene “looks like a bench bat with speed who could be used situationally.”  As a hitter, Southisene lacks power and hits a lot of grounders, but he has terrific contact skills and good enough speed to turn some of those grounders into hits.

Bateman was an eighth-round pick in the 2023 draft, and he could be on the verge of his big league debut after hitting .312/.431/.422 with three homers and 18 doubles over 346 PA with Triple-A Iowa this year.  He has also stolen 20 bases, giving him 83 steals in 101 attempts during his minor league career.

This big season comes on the heels of three more modest years in Chicago’s farm system, so Bateman only clocks in 21st on Pipeline’s ranking and Baseball America didn’t include him in their Cubs top 30.  Bateman is also lacking in power or hard-contact numbers, so his offensive game is built “on reaching base by drilling grounders through holes in the defense and working walks,” as per Pipeline’s scouting report.  Defensively, Bateman is a strong fielder with a good throwing arm, so he projects to be able to stick in center field.

Inset photo courtesy of Kevin Sousa – Imagn Images