Cade Townsend is Cubs pitching’s far future, but what’s near future look like when starters hit free agency?
Cade Townsend is a 21-year-old who’s been a pro ballplayer for all of two months.
The Cubs’ first-round draft pick from earlier this summer is already ranked as their No. 4 prospect, but he’s a long way from the majors, yet to play a minor league game as he gets his first taste of life in the organization.
“It’s unreal. I don’t think there’s another organization like it,” Townsend said Wednesday. “I told my agents the day before the draft, ‘Get me here, no matter what. This is where I want to be.’ You really see that now, and it’s cool to see the process of: How does every day work together? It’s really a family, and I really appreciate that.”
These are early days. But Townsend figures to be an important piece of the Cubs’ long-term pitching puzzle.
The Cubs have used quality starting pitching as part of their formula to earn baseball’s fifth-best record and position themselves for a deep October run, and the current discussion centers on who’s going to get the ball in Game 1 of a playoff series.
But the discussion will eventually pivot to just how different the staff could look past the end of this season.
The team’s entire at-this-moment rotation could soon be gone: lefties Matthew Boyd, Shota Imanaga and David Peterson and righties Kevin Gausman and Clay Holmes are all set to hit free agency at the end of the season.
There are some wrinkles, of course. Boyd has a $15 million mutual option for next season on his contract, and Holmes has a $12 million player option. But both pitchers have performed well enough — each making their case for that Game 1 start — that they’d figure to seek a raise in free agency.
There’s also the still-sizable pile of pitching injuries affecting guys who could make up a reasonably exciting starting group in 2027 and beyond. Righties Edward Cabrera, Ben Brown and Cade Horton, as well as lefty Justin Steele, are all on the injured list but under contract for next season.
Could it be a full-scale line change this offseason?
Certainly there would be plenty of questions about building a rotation entirely of guys coming off injuries of varying significance, including some that by next spring will have kept guys out for whole seasons.
Jed Hoyer’s front office could go to work in the winter and add to this group in free agency, even bringing some of their free-agents-to-be back, should they so desire.
Does it cast sort of a “Last Dance” feel on the home stretch and playoffs this season? The idea that this is the time to win with these pitchers? Boyd, Imanaga, Gausman and Holmes, if the season ended today, would seem to be the Cubs’ best options to form a postseason rotation. Come October, all four could be in their final days with the team.
Much further down the road than the start of next season, there’s Townsend, who represents a future wave of Cubs pitching.
The team liked the Ole Miss product enough to spend the No. 23 pick on him in this summer’s draft, despite his 6-foot-0 height, something the young righty knows has been mentioned as a potential hurdle to big league success.
He doesn’t see it that way and has opted to wear a rebuttal right on the back of his uniform.
“I’m actually wearing the No. 65,” Townsend said. “A lot of people said, ‘Man, you’re just a 6-foot right-hander.’ And when I’m on the mound, I think I’m 6-[foot]-5. I really think I’m better than you in every way.
“I don’t care how tall I am. Look at [Red Sox pitcher and 14-year major league veteran] Sonny Gray. He’s 5-[foot]-10, and he’s played a long time.”
Cubs fans can hope to see No. 65 on the mound at Wrigley Field someday, when there will surely be more changes on the pitching staff, the nature of the sport.
But the changes could be significant as soon as next year, before Townsend arrives, before Townsend even throws a pitch in a minor league game, perhaps.
The championship-level expectations the Cubs carry don’t figure to go away with a few free-agent arms this winter. Can the next wave keep the realistic World Series hopes alive?