Chicago Cubs urged to reconsider possible interest in Dylan Cease

The Chicago Cubs need pitching. That’s just an irrefutable truth as the team heads into the 2026 season.

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At the recent GM meetings in Las Vegas, Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer flat-out said that Chicago’s primary focus this winter will be pitching.

“We’re gonna have an active offseason,” Hoyer told reporters. “Take that for what it’s worth. I think the largest focus will be on pitching; I think that’s obvious looking at our depth chart. We’re in pretty good position on the position player side; on the pitching side, we’re thinner.”

The most headline-friendly pitching quest this offseason will involve starting pitching– specifically, a front-of-rotation starter who could help carry the team through the regular season and into the playoffs.

Big uncertainty in the Chicago Cubs starting rotation

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With the team declining the option of Shota Imanaga and the return of Justin Steele not happening until sometime around mid-season, there’s a lot of uncertainty when it comes to the formerly certain starting five. Matthew Boyd and rookie Cade Horton, who performed extremely well last season, are injury-prone and could be due for some regression in 2026. Jameson Taillon, who was solid when healthy last year, is a mid-rotation guy at best. Backups Colin Rea and Javier Assad are solid as fill-ins, but maybe not so much as full-time rotation pieces.

Therefore, the Cubs will have to bring in at least one top-tier starter from the outside, either through trade or free agency.

The biggest name linked to the team so far has been Padres starter Dylan Cease, who ranks among the top pitchers in the free agent class of 2026.

But would it be wise to bring in the former Cubs’ prospect?

Dylan Cease: Yay or Nay?

On the surface, who would turn Cease away? Even with a down year last season (8-12, 4.55 ERA), the hard-throwing righty has elite stuff and has proven himself to be a durable mound presence, starting 32+ games per season for the last five years.

But Cease will be 30 on opening day and is projected to get a 5-year, $145 million contract. The question is whether the power pitcher will continue to be as high-end effective in his years of decline as he was in his prime.

Brett Taylor of the BN Cubs Podcast recently touched on his concern regarding Cease.

Per Taylor:

“When it comes to starting pitchers and the aging curve, what you see is 90% of pitchers have a moment– 29, 30, 31, 32, or so– where they will lose a couple clicks on their fastball and some of the sharpness on their breaking pitches. It’s just a physiological reality…and when that happens, two things can happen. You can find your way into a little more pitchability, a little bit more execution, a little bit more command…and becoming, from 31 to 36, a really effective starting pitcher. Maybe not the dominant one you were in your younger days, but a very effective starter. Or it could be that, wow, you were only succeeding because you could miss bats and you can’t miss bats now and you’re getting clobbered.

Where I get nervous on someone like Dylan Cease is…when he gets hit, he gets hit hard.”

Things to consider

What will happen when Cease loses some of his power and is forced to rely more on his guile as a pitcher, something he’s not necessarily known for right now?

That has to be a concern, as well, for the conservative, metrics-orientated Cubs front office, who aren’t exactly in the habit of handing out big-money, multi-year contracts to pitchers.

Would the Cubs be more willing, though, to green light a big free agent contract for a pitcher who’s already started his physical decline, but has adapted his game to compensate for diminishing velocity and stuff? The Cubs’ 6-year gamble on a 31-year-old Jon Lester back in 2015 sure paid dividends for the franchise.

Brett Taylor, in a Bleacher Nation piece, also talked up Ranger Suarez as a possible pivot from the more physically gifted Cease.

Per Taylor:

“The 30-year-old lefty saw his velocity dip over the last two seasons, and his results … got better. He diversified his pitch mix significantly, started to get a little more chase, improved his contact quality, and held his CSW steady. In other words, he has shown for two years now that he can be just as effective – if not more – at 91/92 mph as he was at 94 mph.”

ESPN is projecting Suarez’s free agent contract to be $92 million over four years, which would see him earning $6 million less per season than Cease. The money saved could go towards a quality bullpen arm.

These are certainly things to think about for a Cubs team rumored to be interested in finally spending some serious money on pitching talent. Of course, there always exists the possibility that they could fall back on their usual strategy of picking up fringe arms and reclamation projects on a budget.

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Source: https://www.chicitysports.com/chicago-cubs-dylan-cease-ranger-suarez-free-agent