Bringing Carson Kelly back to Chicago might have sounded like a long shot not long ago, but that idea is starting to look a lot more realistic.
When the 2026 Cubs season wrapped, Kelly was one of the players viewed as likely to move on. The thought was straightforward enough: he could test the market, use a thin catching class to his advantage, and draw the kind of multi-year deal that pulls him away from the North Side.
That outcome still feels possible. But it no longer sounds like the default.
On a recent North Side Territory episode, Cubs beat writers Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney spent a good amount of time on Kelly, and their read was that a return is very much in play. The conversation also touched on how the Cubs may want to lean more heavily on Pedro Ramirez and Matt Shaw, which would ripple through the bench picture. If Kelly leaves, that only creates another hole for Craig Counsell to manage.
Miguel Amaya remains part of the equation, but the concerns are obvious. He has only reached the 100-game mark once in his MLB career, and that makes him a risky bet to handle the bulk of a full season behind the plate. Sharma and Mooney also said they had a hard time imagining the Cubs entering the 2027 season with Amaya and top catching prospect Owen Ayers as the two catchers.
The market itself is another reason a reunion keeps hanging around as a real possibility. The free-agent catching pool does not look especially strong, and Kelly may very well stand out as the best catcher available. That kind of landscape usually leads to multiple years being thrown around.
The Cubs also have bigger priorities elsewhere, especially on the pitching side, and they could decide to pair Amaya with a glove-first depth option while keeping Ayers at Iowa if necessary. Even so, the mutual interest mentioned around Kelly and Chicago keeps the door open. For now, it sounds like the Cubs may not be done with Carson Kelly after all.
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