The Chicago Cubs may sit atop the NL Central Division with a 6.5 game lead over the second-place Milwaukee Brewers as of this writing, but no lead is secure in mid-June.
There’s a lot of baseball yet to be played and a lot that could happen between now and the real heat of a pennant race. The grind of the late summer months, especially, separates the contenders from the pretenders.
Usually, the determining factor in who makes postseason play is pitching.
Chicago Cubs not resting easy with first place lead
And that’s why the Cubs and their fans are not resting easy with a fairly comfortable first-place lead and a team that has looked postseason-special throughout the early part of this 2025 campaign.
It’s not that the team has “bad” pitching. The bullpen has been turned around from a liability to a top-tier asset. The starting rotation has been remarkably solid for a crew dealing with the loss of their ace (Justin Steele) for the season, their co-ace (Shota Imanaga) for a substantial period, and their projected fifth starter (Javier Assad).
However, Cubs pitching has labored pretty hard to keep themselves a middle-of-the-pack crew and, with little margin for error and the dog days of summer on the horizon, the fear is that the balancing act will fail at some point.
The good news is that Imanaga, who is set to make another rehab appearance on Friday, appears to be close to a big league return.
The other good news is that the Cubs have a good amount of trade capital and, reportedly, a willingness to wheel and deal before the July 31 trade deadline in pursuit of a high-end starter.
Re-stocking the starting rotation
Apr 15, 2025; San Diego, California, USA; Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Shota Imanaga (18) delivers during the first inning against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Denis Poroy-Imagn Images
The addition of Imanaga and a trade acquisition, though, means that space will have to be cleared in the current five-man rotation.
Matthew Boyd and Jameson Taillon, the anchors of the rotation amid the run of injuries, won’t be going anywhere. So, that would leave three men competing for one remaining rotation spot. Veteran Colin Rea has great value as a versatile swing man in the bullpen.
23-year-old rookie top pitching prospect Cade Horton, who has been consistently solid since being called up from Triple-A when Imanaga got hurt, looks to be the favorite to land the final starter slot.
That would leave Ben Brown as the apparent odd man out.
The 25-year-old Brown, who has shown flashes of brilliance throughout his two-year major league career, has been wildly inconsistent this season with a 5.57 ERA through 15 appearances. But a Cubs team serious about a playoff run can’t afford to have wild inconsistency.
The prevailing wisdom is that Brown may be sent down to Triple-A when/if the starting rotation gets re-stocked. There’s also the thought that he may be moved to the bullpen.
But a third option may be the most beneficial to this 2025 Cubs team.
Trading Ben Brown
The Cubs could opt to trade Brown.
Now, no team wants to trade away a 25-year-old pitcher who has shown flashes of elite-level ability. But the return they could get for Brown might make a trade too enticing to overlook.
Every single team selling at the deadline would love to get back a young player who can be an immediate asset at the major league level. Every single seller’s coaching staff would love to get their hands on someone like Brown to offer a tweak or modification in hopes of getting him to be his fully-actualized self.
For the Cubs, dealing Brown would also cut back on the prospect haul needed to land a high-end starter in a trade. They could probably land a front-line arm for just Brown and a lower-tier prospect.
Trading Brown would probably only make sense if the Cubs could acquire a pitcher under team control beyond this year, such as a Sandy Alcantara, but there don’t appear to be many of those who will be available this deadline (although the front office could get creative and maybe pull off a 3-team trade for a high-end arm with years remaining on his contract).
Such an idea is worth considering, anyway. Especially if the Cubs want to hold on to their top prospects– possibly for a second headline-making trade at some point.
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