The Cubs didn’t wait long to lock in Cade Townsend.
Less than a week after taking him in the 2026 first round, Chicago signed the right-hander to his contract, and the deal comes in under slot. Townsend agreed to a $3.1 million bonus, below the slot value of $3,947,600, which leaves the Cubs with roughly $800K in savings.
That’s a nice bit of business for a player who already has plenty of buzz around him. Townsend is viewed as one of the organization’s top prospects, and his pitch mix gives him a starter’s profile with the kind of stuff that could push him through the system quickly. MLB Pipeline’s Jim Callis went even further, writing that Townsend “Immediately becomes best pitching prospect in system.”
That’s a notable shift in the Cubs’ pitching hierarchy. Jaxon Wiggins had been the clear top arm in the system, and he still has the kind of upside that makes him look like a possible rotation piece.
But durability has been part of the conversation. The Cubs handled him carefully last season, and he spent most of the first three months of 2026 working through an elbow injury.
Wiggins is back at Triple-A Iowa now, though the edge of his shine may have dulled a bit. In a perfect world, the Cubs would end up with both Townsend and Wiggins as long-term rotation options.
Chicago also got a deal done with third-round pick Carson Jasa, another under-slot signing that trims another $50K from the draft budget. Jasa signed for $750K, below the $800K slot value. Callis described him as an arm with some of the nastiest breaking stuff in the draft, pointing to a downer 78-82 mph curveball, an upper-80s slider, and a fastball that can reach 98 mph but still needs better command.
On the pitching depth front, the Cubs brought back Jake Woodford on a minor-league deal. The former St.
Louis Cardinals first-round pick had already been pushed into a major-league deal earlier this month because of the Cubs’ circumstances, and his first outings were rough. With Aaron Bummer and Liam Hendriks released earlier this week, Woodford gives Chicago more depth at Triple-A Iowa.
The bigger picture still points to help coming. The Cubs’ pitching staff should start getting healthier in the weeks ahead, and the trade deadline is expected to bring additions to both the rotation and the bullpen. The hope, from Chicago’s side, is that they won’t need to lean on Woodford for long.
As for the money, the Cubs are already over the luxury tax line ahead of the 2026 MLB trade deadline. FanGraphs has their payroll at $248,151,922, while Spotrac puts it at $253,337,628. The two sites use different calculations, and both figures may differ from the Cubs’ internal accounting.
Even so, there’s still room to spend if Chicago wants to stay under the second threshold at $264 million. In other words, the Cubs have money to work with this summer.
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