There's no way to discuss the Cubs' starting rotation without having it devolve into a nightmare of a word problem. Allow us to demonstrate:
Ten players made at least five starts for the Cubs in 2026. Only one, Shota Imanaga, hit the 30-start threshold. A second, Matthew Boyd, got to 20. The third most prolific, Colin Rea (19), was bumped to the bullpen halfway through the season. David Peterson, acquired in late June, made 15, as did Edward Cabrera and Jameson Taillon, who was later traded to the Blue Jays. Javier Assad, in his classic swing man role, made 11. Deadline acquisitions Kevin Gausman and Clay Holmes made nine starts each, and rounding out the group was Ben Brown, who made eight but spent more time in the bullpen (and yet more on the injured list).
One of those named players, Taillon, is no longer a going concern in Chicago. Of the remaining nine starters there, six of them -- Boyd, Gausman, Holmes, Imanaga, Peterson and Rea, plus a bonus seventh in Aaron Civale -- just became free agents.
So … how many starting pitchers do the Cubs have now?
The options on the free agent market are a different (and much longer) discussion. For now, here's an honest effort to take inventory of who the Cubs have in-house who could factor into the 2027 season -- with the understanding that some speculation is going to be involved.
Cade Horton
Horton made two starts this season before having Tommy John surgery, from which he's unlikely to return at least until July. Consider us very curious about what's coming back. Horton had a great rookie year (11-4, 2.64 ERA, 1.09 WHIP) but his metrics didn't really match (3.88 xERA, 10.1% barrel rate, 20.4% K%) and he clearly was among the many beneficiaries of the Cubs' defense. It'll be a relief to add him back to the mix, but what the Cubs have here remains a minor mystery.
Edward Cabrera
Acquired in January 2026 from the Marlins after a semi-breakout in 2025, Cabrera only made 15 starts (and three relief appearances) in 2026 due to a recurring blister and a left hamstring strain, and all that missed time ruined the good start he got off to. He ended things with a 5.96 ERA and by the end of the season was getting hit very hard (his 11.7% barrel rate ranked in the 2nd percentile.) At the end of the day, he was good enough in 2025 to consider him an automatic member of the rotation to start the year -- if he's healthy.
Justin Steele
Steele basically took over as the Cubs' ace for a while there, carrying a collective 134 ERA+ from 2022-24. But he last pitched in the Majors on April 7, 2025, and soon thereafter had surgery to repair a torn flexor tendon and UCL in his left elbow. Setbacks then delayed his return to game action until September 2026, and despite some talk of him returning in a relief role in the postseason, that ended up not being so realistic. It seems to be the Cubs' intention to have him back in the rotation in 2027, but getting him back to where he was could be easier said than done after a long absence.
Javier Assad
An option, but probably not their first choice, one potential indication being that they chose to decline his $3.3 million option for 2027. (He remains arbitration eligible and under team control.) He was in his usual hybrid taxi squad-type role in 2026 and pitched well, specifically to a 3.49 ERA in 11 starts in the Majors, but his high-contact, sinker-heavy profile is one that usually gets less effective with increased exposure.
Ben Brown
The Cubs very recently announced Brown had cervical spine surgery to address the neck injury that knocked out most of his 2024 and 2026 seasons, and from their reports, they expect to have him back sometime in the first half of 2027. If all goes to plan, that should give them ample time to get a better look at a guy who, given more time, might have broken out big time in 2026 -- at minimum, he was fantastic in the eight starts he did make (1.70 ERA, 41 K's and one HR allowed in 42 1/3 IP).
Braxton Garrett
Garrett, who also came from Miami (more recently, at the 2026 Deadline), has made 10 total appearances since the start of the 2024 season, and he made just one for the Cubs post-trade. He was actually in Triple-A for most of the year, working his way back from January 2025 UCL revision surgery. The good news is that he pitched great down there, which should give the Cubs a bit more hope they could see him return to his 2023 form -- that year, in 31 appearances (30 starts), he had a 3.66 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, a well above-average ground ball rate and a chase rate ranking in the 77th percentile (31.3%).
Jordan Wicks
Wicks was among the Cubs' top 10 prospects from 2022-24. That he's lacking in name recognition just two years later is a pretty good indication of how things have gone. He's historically done well in Triple-A but thus far his trips to the big leagues have been really rough, and there was an alarming shift in 2026 when he struggled mightily in Iowa, where he's been "stuck," for lack of a better word, for years. One would assume his awful year there (2-11, 5.99 ERA, 1.70 WHIP) had something to do with the forearm radial nerve irritation he had pop up early in Spring Training, so it may not yet be time to rule him out, but he's almost certainly starting the year in Triple-A.
Jaxon Wiggins
The Cubs' upper Minor Leagues are very thin in the pitching department, and it's not likely that their reinforcements are going to come from inside the farm system. But we are under some obligation to mention Wiggins (Cubs' No. 6 prospect), who given a better 2026 probably would have been part of this conversation. Unfortunately, he dealt with elbow inflammation for a lot of 2026 and struggled mightily when he got back, ultimately ending the year in the bullpen having pitched to a collective 6.75 ERA with a 1.78 WHIP in 42 2/3 IP across all levels.
Brooks Caple
Caple, Chicago's No. 9 prospect, isn't as close as Wiggins, nor is he as buzzy. He doesn't throw as hard and has never pitched above Double-A. In theory, all of that probably makes him the least realistic option here for the Cubs in 2027. But player development isn't exactly a linear process, and if Caple is executing and there's a spot open at some point later in the year, it might be worth giving him a shot -- in his 17 games (16 starts) in Tennessee this year, he had a 3.24 ERA and 1.08 WHIP.