Today is the deadline for arbitration-eligible players to file their request for a 2026 salary (and for teams to file their number in return). In the distant past, when those numbers didn’t meet, teams and players might have continued negotiating until their hearing later in the month. But for a good long while now, today has basically been the final day of talks (you may have heard “file and trial” before … that’s what it means).
In other words, if you didn’t come to an agreement today, an arbitration hearing was going to happen. And, unfortunately, as we’ve heard in the past, those can be a little ugly, with the team basically having to explain, in front of their own players, why they are bad, actually, and don’t deserve more money.
You might think that sounds silly, but we’ve heard comments from dozens of players expressing their dissapointment and frustration with the process because of the things their own team has said about them.
In any case, the Cubs had three arbitration-eligible players coming into the offseason: Reese McGuire, Justin Steele, and Javier Assad. They non-tendered McGuire earlier this winter, but then they picked up Edward Cabrera in their big trade this week, bringing them back up to three.
Fortunately, the Cubs have reportedly come to terms with all three of their arbitration-eligible players! Hooray for no ugliness!
Cubs Avoid Arbitration with Everyone
We heard about Justin Steele earlier today (he settled for $6.77M). But as it turns out, the Cubs also settled with both Javier Assad and Edward Cabrera.
The Cubs have avoided arbitration with RHP Edward Cabrera ($4.45 M), LHP Justin Steele ($6.775 M) and RHP Javier Assad ($1.8 M), sources confirmed.@JesseRogersESPN was first on Cabrera, @PJ_Mooney on Steele.
— Maddie Lee (@maddie_m_lee) January 9, 2026Justin Steele got $200K more than MLB Trade Rumors had projected. Javier Assad got $100K less. But Edward Cabrera beat his projection by a whopping $750K!
Now, listen, MLB Trade Rumors’ forecast is nothing more than a projection, but they are also SHOCKINGLY accurate historically, and their figures are taken as gospel by most of the baseball (writing) industry. And while $100K here or there is completely within the standard deviation of realistic outcomes, Cabrera’s bump is a lot more than that.
Whether his agent used their leverage as a new member of the team or if the Cubs just took the opportunity to be generous (and keep a key player happy), I don’t know. But that’s a nice little raise for Cabrera, who made less than $2M last season.
Good start, Cubs. Keep him happy, make him great. How hard can it be?
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