New Cubs pitcher Edward Cabrera got a snowy introduction to his new city. In town for Cubs Convention this weekend, he wore a short-sleeved knit shirt in front of the circle of cameras and reporters, as the wind lifted plumes of powder outside.
Cabrera, who spent the first five years of his major-league career in Miami, put on an exaggerated grimace when asked what he thought of the weather.
“This is way different,” he said Friday with a smile, addressing the media for the first time since his trade last week.
Much of the fanfare leading up to this weekend’s festivities centered around the addition of veteran third baseman Alex Bregman. And deservedly so – the Cubs committed $175 million to sign him to a five-year deal. He’s a player the Cubs have long been interested in, who is expected to have a significant impact on the lineup.
Days before they came to an agreement with Bregman, however, they acquired Cabrera, who is expected to have a major impact on their rotation, an area they’ve been looking to upgrade and deepen for the past year.
“He’s been a guy that has been a favorite of some of our pitching infrastructure guys for a long time,” president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said Friday. “Obviously, great stuff. Feels like he’s a guy that could be just kind of scratching the surface of what he can do. That was a big part of it, that he’s a guy where the analytics matched up, the age matched up, the service time matched up, and the fact that there’s some guys that had had conviction on him for a long time.”
The Cubs first discussed Cabrera with the Marlins last winter, according to Hoyer. The trade talks didn’t gain traction, but they picked them back up at the trade deadline, when the Cubs were seeking a marquee starter with multiple years of club control.
None of the pitchers of that description moved at the deadline. So, after a National League Division Series exit, the Cubs were looking to address the same need this offseason.
It took a three-player package built around the Cubs’ top prospect, outfielder Owen Caissie, to get the deal done.
“Obviously a guy who is super talented,” pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said of Cabrera over the phone this week, “a guy who has battled some injuries and some ups and downs, but really had a fantastic season this last year coming into his own.”
Hottovy got extra insight into that strong season – as Cabrera posted a 3.53 ERA while making a career-high 26 starts and trimming his walk rate to a career-best 8.3% – through former Cubs assistant pitching and current Marlins pitching coach Daniel Moskos.
“One thing that I think that they saw last year with him, and that we recognize, is just trusting that your stuff can play,” Hottovy said when asked about Cabrera’s improved wall rate.
Cabrera’s most-used pitch is his changeup, and he’d been pairing that with a 97-mph four-seam fastball. But last offseason, he said, he worked on his sinker, which then overtook his four-seamer in usage.
“It helped me a lot,” Cabrera said through team interpreter Fredy Quevedo Jr. “It helped me combine the other pitches that I had and helped me stay in the game more.”
The way Hottovy described it, of the two fastballs, the sinker was the one Cabrera was more comfortable throwing for strikes. Making it a foundational pitch paid dividends.
Cabrera still spent three weeks on the injured list in September for what the team called a sprained right elbow, adding to the young flame-thrower’s long injury history. But he returned to make two starts in the final week of the season.
“Guys throw really hard now, their stuff is amazing,” Hoyer said. “Guys get hurt more often, it’s kind of part of the game. So you always weigh that risk, but you also realize that with increased stuff comes that risk.”