The Cubs declined their $3.3MM club option on righty Javier Assad yesterday, reports Jordan Bastian of MLB.com. He remains under club control as an arbitration-eligible player. The team didn’t formally announce the decision at any point.
Assad played the 2026 season on a one-year, $1.8MM deal that included a $3.3MM club option for 2027. He and the Cubs agreed to that deal last winter, buying out his first arb year and giving the team some cost certainty in the event that Assad had a big year. Instead, the righty split the season between Triple-A Iowa and Chicago, functioning primarily as a swingman when he was on the big league roster.
In 94 1/3 major league innings, Assad posted a 3.63 ERA. He did so with a 16.1% strikeout rate that was six percentage points shy of average but also a strong 7.1% walk rate. Assad picked up a pair of three-inning saves but otherwise didn’t log a save or hold. He was generally used as an opener and long reliever, operating most frequently in low- and medium-leverage settings.
The price tag on Assad’s club option came in well north of the $2.3MM figure he’s projected to earn in arbitration (via MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz). Given that discrepancy, it’s not a surprise to see the Cubs turn down that option. He’ll likely negotiate a new deal that locks in some money for 2027 but saves the Cubs $1MM or so, give or take. It’s a small bit of cost-savings but does have a compounding factor; since Assad’s 2027 salary will be lower, so too will any potential raise he’ll receive heading into the 2028 campaign — his final season of club control.
As things stand right now, Assad is in the rotation mix heading into 2027, but the Cubs are known to be on the market for starting pitching. Chicago bid farewell to a full rotation’s worth of arms, with each of Matthew Boyd, Kevin Gausman, David Peterson, Shota Imanaga and Clay Holmes hitting the open market. Ace Justin Steele and 2025 Rookie of the Year runner-up Cade Horton should both be back from last year’s UCL surgeries by the time Opening Day rolls around, but it’s hard to know exactly what to expect from either after such a long injury layoff; neither has pitched in a big league game since April 2025. It’s a similar story for talented righty Ben Brown, who was a revelation upon moving into the rotation this May before a stress reaction in his neck ended the 27-year-old’s season in June.
In all likelihood, Assad will be pushed back to a familiar swing role. He made 29 starts in 2024 but has otherwise split his time between the ‘pen and rotation in the majors. He’s appeared in 106 games — 65 of them starts — and pitched to a 3.47 ERA over 425 1/3 innings. It’s an impressive mark, but Assad has below-average velocity and worse-than-average strikeout and walk rates throughout his career on the whole. Metrics like SIERA (4.63) and FIP (4.56) feel he’s been quite fortunate to run a mid-3.00s ERA. He’s still a nice option to have on hand in a swing role — particularly since he has a minor league option remaining.
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