Cubs Jack Flaherty whiff looks even worse after early Spring Training injury

The Chicago Cubs might not be spending an exorbitant amount of money this offseason, but they have been active as they attempt to rebound from their wildly disappointing 2024 campaign. The Cubs not only improved their bullpen by making several trades, but they also improved their lineup by trading for Kyle Tucker. The one area they mostly ignored was the rotation.

Sure, the Cubs had a great rotation in 2024, and they did sign Matthew Boyd, but there was room for this team to swing big either in a trade or in free agency. Given that fact, Jack Flaherty signing a cheap two-year deal with a team that wasn't the Cubs was wildly disappointing. Flaherty is familiar with the NL Central and is coming off an outstanding year with the Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Cubs seemed content to enter the 2025 campaign with mostly the starting pitching options they had last season plus Boyd, but their plan to stick internal immediately backfired thanks to Javier Assad's injury.

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Unfortunate Javier Assad injury makes Jack Flaherty whiff look even worse for the Cubs

What the injury is remains to be seen, but the fact that Assad is dealing with oblique soreness is not a good sign. Oblique injuries can take a while to heal, making it a very real possibility that he, at the very least, won't be fully stretched out by the time Opening Day rolls around.

The Cubs do have decent depth options like Ben Brown, Colin Rea, and Jordan Wicks in their organization, but Assad is coming off a 3.73 ERA campaign in which he made 29 starts and threw 147 innings. Losing him and having to potentially rely on those lesser options hurts, especially when Flaherty could've been had on a cheap two-year deal.

Flaherty would've given the Cubs a rotation trio consisting of himself, Justin Steele, and Shota Imanaga. How many teams have better rotation trios to offer? That addition would've also given Chicago more depth to count for a potential injury like this one. Again, having guys like Brown, Rea, and Wicks as fall-back options isn't bad, but swapping Assad for Flaherty sounds a lot better.

Instead, the Cubs passed on Flaherty despite the team-friendly terms, and might come to regret that decision in record time.