The Chicago Cubs already made one of the busiest trade deadline splashes in baseball, but the rumor mill says they were chasing even bigger game than anyone realized.
According to The Athletic’s Mitch Bannon and Dan Hayes, Chicago explored a deal for José Soriano, and the surprising twist is that the Cubs called the Toronto Blue Jays - not the Los Angeles Angels - about the right-hander. Toronto had just sent Kevin Gausman to Chicago, yet the Cubs still tried to pry Soriano away as well.
That pursuit says plenty about how aggressively the Cubs attacked the deadline. They added four pitchers in all, bringing in starters Kevin Gausman, Clay Holmes and Braxton Garrett, while also landing Ryan Zeferjahn for the bullpen.
Tyrone Taylor came over in the Holmes deal. A week after the deadline, Garrett is the only one of those newcomers who has not yet appeared in a game.
Soriano would have been a different kind of swing. The 27-year-old was one of the more sought-after starters available, and Toronto saw him as a future piece rather than a player to flip again. Bannon and Hayes reported that the Blue Jays listened to Chicago’s offers but never intended to move him after acquiring him.
The Cubs’ interest also adds another layer to the deadline story because they had been tied more closely to Reid Detmers, the Angels starter, before the deadline. Whether Chicago preferred Soriano all along or simply saw a cleaner path through Toronto, the fact remains: they were willing to keep pushing for another controllable arm even after making major moves.
It’s not clear whether the Soriano push would have happened alongside the Cubs’ eventual deal for Holmes from the New York Mets, which sent No. 2 prospect Jefferson Rojas the other way. If it had, Chicago would have ended up adding three starters in one deadline stretch, a haul that feels almost too aggressive to be real.
More likely, the club shifted to Holmes once Toronto shut the door on Soriano. That Mets deal came through a little more than an hour before the 5:00 p.m.
CT deadline.
Even with Soriano off the board, the Cubs’ appetite for cost-controlled starting pitching looks far from satisfied. George Kirby and Emerson Hancock were among the Mariners names that never moved, while Detmers remains with the Angels. Chicago also went after Edward Cabrera last winter, which leaves open the possibility that this is a pattern, not a one-off.
That fits the way the Cubs have operated lately. They have continued to push in chips and still look built to win now, with an eye on 2027 and beyond. If they want another starter under team control, they may not wait long to get back in the hunt when the market opens again.
And if a lockout is coming, that could only change the conversation. A mostly lost year might make clubs more open to talking, which could work in Chicago’s favor. For now, the Cubs at least preserved enough of their prospect depth during the deadline to keep swinging if they choose to stay aggressive.
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Sewalds season has been rough, and the Blue Jays are clearly banking more on depth than on immediate stability as they sort out the roster. To make room, Toronto will likely have to bump another reliever off the active mix, which turns a simple waiver claim into a larger bullpen decision with someone else now sitting on the bubble. [Read more 🡒]