The Chicago Cubs certainly had an exciting trade deadline! They were able to acquire some much needed arms in Ryan Zeferjahn, Clay Holmes, Kevin Gausman, and Braxton Garrett, as well as getting a good platoon bat in Tyrone Taylor. I will be going through all of the deals and grading each one, as there were some significant prospects given up in these deals.
GAUSMAN TRADE
The first deal that was made was getting Kevin Gausman from the Blue Jays. He is having a down year, with his ERA at 4.38 (and also got shelled by the Cubs earlier this year.) but he will provide some stability to the Cubs pitching staff that has been riddled by injuries and has somewhat underperformed at times. He’s also someone that has quite a bit of experience in the playoffs, which the Cubs are hoping to make a deep run this year. The price to get Gausman was not cheap, but it also made sense from the Cubs perspective. They gave up centerfielder Brett Bateman, who has been doing great in AAA this year. With PCA being on a long term deal now, he would have had a tough road to getting any kind playing time with the major league club anytime soon. They also gave up SS Ty Southisene, who made it to High A this year, and has also been doing well. He’s batting for a .326 average, but has yet to hit a home run in his 576 at-bats in the minor leagues. Overall, this is a good trade for the Cubs. This adds a great veteran arm with playoff experience.
Grade: A-
ZEFERJAHN TRADE
This was another trade that was NEEDED. Ryan Zeferjahn is a great late inning arm that has a fastball that can consistently hit 100 with movement, and he generates lots of swing and miss, which is something that the Cubs bullpen has been missing. When Daniel Palencia comes back from injury, this will really help the bullpen to have options for the late inning scenarios and they will no longer have to rely on Jacob Webb (who has been good) or Trent Thornton in those spots. Zeferjahn has been great this season, especially recently. The last 15 games he has pitched in, he has a 1.69 ERA with 29 strikeouts and only 4 walks. On the season he has 75 strikeouts in just 51.2 innings. He also only has 32 total walks on the season, that coupled with his high swing and miss will hopefully eliminate runners on the basepaths in the 8th and 9th innings. To get Zeferjahn though, there were significant prospects given up. The biggest one, and the biggest heartbreak for a lot of Cubs fans, was Moises Ballesteros. Moises was a fantastic player in April, .382 with 5 home runs. That gave us a lot of hope that this year he would be a consistent bat off the bench, but his May numbers were BAD. He hit just .102 with 0 homeruns. In June he marginally improved, hitting .231 but getting sent back down to AAA. In the minors he did not improve, and that, along with the fact that Moises is essentially a DH only, seemed to be the final straws for the Cubs organization. There is no real place on the Cubs for Moises at catcher with Carson Kelly and Miguel Amaya on the MLB roster and Owen Ayers making an ascension through the minors. The Cubs also gave up Mason McGwire, who has improved in his time pitching in the minors, cutting his walk rate from 17% to about 9% and could be a good prospect for the Angels in the next 2-3 seasons.
Grade: B+
HOLMES/TAYLOR TRADE
In my opinion, the trade to get Clay Holmes and Tyrone Taylor will be the most consequential. Since 2021, Clay Holmes has been a great pitcher, and this year in just 4 games because of a broken leg, he had a 2.39 ERA, although he does have an expected ERA of 3.91, he will enjoy an amazing defense behind him that will keep his ERA low. He’s a big ground ball pitcher, so Dansby and Nico and expect some more work patrolling the middle infield. This acquisition allows the Cubs to have a surplus of arms, something that we haven’t had all season because of injuries. This will likely mean that one of the arms currently in the rotation is going to the bullpen, either Assad or Rea. Personally, I would rather see Rea go to the bullpen and Assad stay in the rotation until Edward Cabrera comes back from the IL, but we will cross that bridge when we get there. The other player acquired in this trade was Tyrone Taylor, a left-fielder who MASHES left handed pitching. This pickup is bigger than I think people are making it out to be, as it frees Ian Happ to be benched against lefties , where he has been abysmal to say the least this year. His defense is still good, but it doesn’t justify having an automatic out at the 5 or 6 spot in the lineup. Taylor has a .900 OPS against left handed pitching, while Ian Happ has just a .530 OPS. If the Cubs are going to make a deep playoff run this year, they can’t have a hole like that in their lineup and I applaud Jed Hoyer in making a move like this. Now, of course the Mets knew that these were big needs for the Cubs and wanted something big in return. That return ended up being Shortstop Jefferson Rojas, who immediately becomes the #1 prospect in the Mets farm system. Many Cubs fans on social media expressed disappointment with letting him go, as he seemed to have a bright future ahead of him. He has shown great power in the Minor Leagues, hitting 15 home runs this year in AA Knoxville, as well as 17 stolen bases. The issue with Rojas would be, what would be his path to the majors? Nico is locked down long term, and while Dansby Swanson could be a replacement candidate in the next few years, Pedro Ramirez survived the deadline and seems poised to stick with the Major League club, where he can be used almost anywhere, but I would prefer him to be in the middle infield alongside Nico. That being said, Rojas would have had a tough road to getting playing time, so trading him was absolutely the right move.
Grade: B
GARRETT TRADE
Braxton Garrett is an interesting pitching pickup for the Cubs. He is a former 7th overall pick who had good years in 2022 and 2023, but unfortunately got injured in 2024, missed all of 2025 and is trying to find himself this year, to the tune of a 14.54 ERA, but also only pitching in 2 games and 4.1 innings. He has pitched in 16 games in AAA Jacksonville for the Miami Marlins farm system this year, having an ERA of 2.90 and even pitching a complete game, something that seems to happen once in a blue moon nowadays. He has also carried a 0.98 WHIP, so if he can stay dominant consistently, hopefully he can make some noise on the Cubs roster, potentially in a bulk inning situation, but also gives them depth to slot him in as a starter if needed. This pickup has a lot of potential, but is for sure the biggest question mark in the days after the trade deadline, as this is the only move where I feel the Cubs overpaid a bit. The Cubs gave the Marlins 3B prospect Jonathan Long as well as RHP Jace Beck. Long had been doing well in AAA, hitting .283 with 12 home runs this year. He has some of the most potential out of all of the Cubs prospects, so including Long in this trade alone is a bit of an overpay for someone who has had an injury riddled career in Miami so far. The Cubs clearly like Braxton Garrett though, as Craig Counsell said in an interview that the Cubs had wanted Garrett for some time now, and an opportunity finally arose. Hopefully, Braxton can make me eat my words and ends up being a great 3 or 4 spot starter.
Grade: C+
This was the most exciting trade deadline for the Cubs in 10 years, and it was a different feeling from years past, as I feel fans have gotten used to Jed Hoyer trying to find diamonds in the rough. Jed went out and got the needs. Suddenly, the Cubs have a surplus of arms and actual options that won’t make the fans cringe in fear when their name is called. Hopefully, this will be enough to have a deep playoff run, compete with the Brewers for the NL Central and potentially compete the the evil empire (Dodgers) for the NL pennant!
