As the Cubs wait for more sellers, keep an eye on these starting pitchers

The Chicago Cubs are trying to do their part to add more teams into the “sellers” category by the Aug. 3 trade deadline. They took two of three from the Minnesota Twins, but lost a series to the Detroit Tigers, two teams on the fence, to start the second half of the season. Both Detroit and Minnesota are trying to stay in the race in an American League that appears so weak, almost every team can claim to be a contender.

“There’s so much uncertainty about who’s going to be buying, who’s going to be selling,” Cubs team president Jed Hoyer recently said. “There’s probably some team that’s talking about selling right now that ends up buying and vice versa. That’s because (the deadline) isn’t tomorrow. We have almost three weeks until the deadline. I expect things will gain clarity towards the very end when teams finally get to that point.”

Hoyer pointed out that some teams have already gotten hot after speculation about where players from those clubs could land. Hoyer spoke right after the All-Star break but was likely alluding to the Boston Red Sox, a team that had a 15-game winning streak snapped Wednesday and holds the final wild-card spot in the AL.

“Some years it’s not that case,” Hoyer said about the need to wait so long. “But this year it’s so jumbled and everyone in the AL is pretty much in the race.”

Red Sox starter Sonny Gray seemed like a good fit for the Cubs, but Boston now seems to have turned its season around. Joe Ryan would be a dream from the Twins, but Minnesota seems unlikely to move him — for now. And everyone is asking about Detroit and Tarik Skubal.

Still, some teams look like obvious sellers at the moment. Here are six starting pitchers who make sense from those teams:

José Soriano, Los Angeles Angels

Soriano started the season in dominant fashion, but has slightly cooled off. Still, he’s 11th in innings pitched (118) and his 3.43 ERA is the same as Paul Skenes and Jesús Luzardo. His walk rate is a little elevated at 11%, but Soriano is striking out 24.8% of the batters he’s faced and he has the third-highest groundball rate (52.1%) among eligible starters. The latter would certainly be welcome with the Cubs elite defense behind him. Soriano is 27 and under control through 2028, so it would cost a hefty price for the Cubs, but he may be worth it.

Reid Detmers, Los Angeles Angels

Like Soriano, Detmers is 27 and under control through 2028. But he’s a lefty and this is his first season in which he’s having some success as a starter. His ERA is slightly elevated (4.05), but only 12 eligible starters have a higher strikeout rate than his 27.4% and he pairs it with a strong 7.4% walk rate. Again, the cost will likely be high, but the Cubs don’t have this type of swing-and-miss stuff in their rotation and would love to pair it with Ben Brown and Cade Horton, both now and in the future.

Robbie Ray, San Francisco Giants

The Cubs were once enamored with Ray when he hit free agency after his Cy Young campaign in 2021, but they weren’t looking to spend at that level for those numbers of years back then. Ray has suffered multiple injuries since and while the general stuff seems to be there and the results are solid this season (3.33 ERA in 110 2/3 innings), he’s not missing bats at nearly the same rate as the past. At 32.1% in 2021, Ray’s strikeout rate now sits at 20.6% with an unremarkable groundball rate and an elevated walk rate. He’s a pending free agent, so the cost may not be high, but he also seems like a pitcher primed to have his peripherals catch up to him down the stretch.

Clay Holmes, New York Mets

Expect the Cubs to keep close tabs on Holmes’ rehab start on Thursday as he works his way back from a broken right fibula. Holmes won’t miss a ton of bats, but his high groundball rate (56%) would work beautifully with the Cubs. He has a player option for next season, but most don’t expect him to pick that up. That could complicate negotiations, but it seems like many teams will be treating him as a pending free agent.

Freddy Peralta, New York Mets

Peralta has better pure stuff than Holmes, but he’s having a confounding season. His ERA has ballooned to 5.01 while his strikeout rate has plummeted nearly six points to 22.4%. The cost won’t be too high because of that and the fact that his contract ends after this season, but do the Cubs see something in him to correct whatever has gone astray?

Kevin Gausman, Toronto Blue Jays

The Blue Jays are probably not yet for-sure sellers, but they do seem headed that way. Gausman would be an interesting fit. His ERA is nearly a run higher than last season, up to 4.51, but the other numbers aren’t too off from a solid 2025 season. He’s not the same guy he was at his peak from 2021-23, but he’s still solid. It may make sense for the Cubs to bet on a better final two months from a veteran who has performed well in the postseason as recently as last October. It’s the same thinking that got them Cole Hamels in 2018 and a philosophy Hoyer still believes in.

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