The Cubs boast one of the three finalists for the National League’s Most Valuable Player award in Pete Crow-Armstrong.
But Chicago won’t be adding two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal to the roster this winter, according to The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma.
The MLB General Manager Meetings kick off Tuesday in Las Vegas, which is usually a place for teams to lay the groundwork on potential offseason moves. But the Cubs likely won’t enter a bidding war with spending juggernauts such as the Dodgers and Mets amid labor uncertainty.
Skubal spent the second-half of the 2026 season with Los Angeles after being traded from the Tigers at the deadline, where he posted a 2.61 ERA with 70 strikeouts across 62 innings pitched.
While he had a successful campaign with the Dodgers, he also enjoyed his brief tenure with the organization. Skubal’s affinity for the team could very well play a leading role in his free agency process this winter.
The Cubs were poised to be one of the most dominant NL teams in the postseason, but were eliminated by the red, hot Padres in the wild-card round.
Crow-Armstrong and Alex Bregman’s bats went cold in the two-game sweep, but Chicago will likely focus on adding starting pitching this offseason.
But Skubal appears to be out of the team’s spending range, giving the Dodgers a clearer path to the left-hander’s return for 2027 and beyond.
