Cabrera, 28 in April, is a former top prospect who has shown stellar performance in the past but wasn’t healthy enough to fulfill that potential until the breakout campaign in 2025. While he still logged some IL time this past season, he turned in a career-high 137 2/3 innings with a strong 3.53 ERA and encouraging underlying numbers. Cabrera struck out 25.8% of opponents, posted a career-high 8.3% walk rate – much better than the 13.3% clip he entered the season – posted a 46.6% groundball rate and was on his four-sifter at 90 mph in 2025 (and on his sinker at 96.8 mph).
Early in the 2025 season, Cabrera missed two weeks with blisters on his throwing hand – his second career IL trip due to blister problems. His second IL trip in 2025 was more alarming, as it was prompted by a sprained elbow late in the year. That’s a much more concerning injury, but Cabrera returned after just three weeks and fired nine generally solid innings over his last two outings, hitting 90 mph on his four-seamer and 100 mph on his sinker during that time. Given the trade interest in him this offseason and a deal now nearing completion, it doesn’t appear there is any concern at the moment about a serious elbow injury looming on the horizon.
In addition to his speed and rate quality stats, Cabrera’s contractual situation always had broad appeal. He’s entering the second of four arbitration seasons as a Super Two player and will earn a very affordable $3.7 million in 2026, according to MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz. He’s under club control through 2028, and based on the fairly low starting point in his arbitration trajectory, those three seasons probably won’t cost much more than $20 million total.
Cabrera will be part of a deep Cubs rotation mix, joining the Rookie of the Year finalist Cade Horton and veterans Matthew Boyd, Jameson Taillon And Shota Imanaga (which accepted a $22.05 million qualifying offer in November). The Cabrera acquisition likely boosts the veteran swingman Colin Rea back in a long relief role to start the season, although he would be one of the first in the event of an injury elsewhere on the staff.
Right-handed Javier Assad is also in the mix, although he missed almost the entire 2025 season due to a severe oblique strain and recorded a career-low strikeout rate of 15% in the 37 innings he managed late in the season. Assad still has minor league options remaining, so he could be sent to Triple-A to start the year, or else be considered for a multi-inning relief role similar to the one Rea could fill. Other options in Triple-A include the hard-throwing 26-year-old righty Ben Brown and former top prospect Jordan Wieken (also 26). Top prospect Jaxon Wiggins is not yet on the 40-man roster and has barely pitched in Triple-A, but he could also be eligible for a big league debut next season.
Naturally, the Cubs will be eagerly awaiting Ace’s return Justin Steeleideally sometime in the first half of the season. The 30-year-old Steele was the team’s top starter from 2022-2024, throwing a combined 427 innings of 3.10 ERA ball with plus strikeout, walk and groundball percentages, but he made just four starts in 2025 before needing UCL surgery in late April. Every rehabilitation process is different, but it is reasonable to expect that he could be back in June or July.
In the second half of the season, the Cubs could expect a rotation led by Steele, Horton and Cabrera, with veterans Taillon, Boyd, Imanaga and Rea among the options for the final few spots. Injuries will almost always disrupt any team’s best-laid plans, but that’s a quality group that doesn’t even consider Wiggins, who posted a 2.19 ERA and 31% strikeout rate in 18 starts (and one relief appearance) between Double-A and Triple-A last year.
On the Marlins side, Cabrera was an obvious trade candidate, but one that came at a pretty steep price considering that salary and remaining control of the club. He landed on the back of MLBTR’s Top 40 Offseason Trade Candidate list in November.
It’s clearly not a financially driven move, but the Fish are deep in rotation options – with several top prospects close to being ready – and have several holes in the lineup to fill. Trading Cabrera for a package headlined by Caissie works toward that goal.
Even with Cabrera leaving, Miami can roll out a rotation, including Sandy Alcantara, Eury Perez, Ryan Weers And Braxton Garrett in the top four places. Journeyman Janson Junk had a surprisingly nice outing with the Fish in 2025 and is a fifth-place or long-term option. The same can be said for Righty Ryan likes itwhich the Marlins acquired at the trade shipping deadline Jesus Sanchez to Houston. Former top prospects Max Meijer, Dax Fulton And Adam Mazure are also all on the 40-man roster. Current top prospects Tomas White And Robby Snelling both could debut this season. White in particular is considered one of the top players in the entire sport.
Caissie should head straight into the Marlins’ outfield next season. The 23-year-old slugger made his big league debut last season and struggled in a small group of 27 at-bats, but is a former second-round pick and longtime top prospect who has destroyed minor league pitching. That includes a 2025 campaign in which he slashed .286/.386/.551 (139 wRC+) with 22 home runs, 28 doubles and a pair of triples in 99 games/433 plate appearances of Triple-A work.
Caissie is a left-handed corner outfielder with great power and great swing-and-miss tendencies. Last year, he made nearly 28% of his Triple-A plate appearances. However, he was regularly able to offset the damage of those strikeouts by walking at high clips. He drew a free pass in 13.2% of his Triple-A appearances last year and has an overall walk rate of 13.6% in five minor league seasons.
Scouting reports on Caissie praise his positive throwing arm, but predict he will be limited to corner work (despite some early career experience in center field). He has the characteristics of a prototypical right fielder with three true outcomes. The Marlins could go for the 2025 breakout slugger Kyle Stowers in left field and Caissie in right field, giving them a pair of powerful bats to plug into the heart of their order in the near future.
Because Caissie only made a brief MLB debut this past season, he still has six full seasons of club control remaining. He’s still rookie eligible, so the Marlins could potentially pick up a draft pick for him through the MLB prospect promotion program, depending on when he’s raised for his Marlins debut and (of course) how he does in award voting early in his big-league tenure. Caissie was only selected to the Major League roster last offseason, meaning he has only exhausted one minor league option year and has two remaining.
Caissie joins Stowers as a breaking midfielder Jakob Marsee in forming a talented and intriguing outfield core. The Marlins’ lineup overall has become more interesting in recent years, thanks in large part to the rise of Xavier Edwards next to those young outfielders. Former top shelter Agustin Ramirez hit power in his rookie campaign last season, but struggled to get on base and played extremely poor defense behind the plate. Marlins president Peter Bendix has emphasized that the club hopes to continue developing Ramirez behind the plate, but he could see time at first base and DH in 2026, especially if he was a top prospect. Joe Mack debuts.
Hernandez, 22, is a speed and defense shortstop who spent the 2025 season with the Cubs’ High-A affiliate. Baseball America recently ranked him 16th among Cubs farmhands heading into the 2026 season, noting he has more raw power but hits the ball on the ground far too often to ever tap into that boom. (Last season’s seven home runs were a career high.) BA’s report notes that Hernandez has the tools to be an above-average defender, but is often inaccurate with his throws despite good arm strength.
Improving the accuracy of Hernandez’s throws seems like a more achievable goal than overhauling his offensive approach to gain loft without compromising his lower-than-average strikeout rate, but if the Marlins can fix both of those traits, it’s possible they could have a starting-caliber shortstop on their hands. Those are big ifs, of course, especially considering that Hernandez hit just .252/.329/.365 as a 21-year-old in his second stint with the Cubs’ High-A affiliate. He’s a project, but a capable shortstop coming off a 52-steal (61-attempt) season is a nice secondary piece to add to the system.
De Leon is the furthest from MLB ready. He is an 18-year-old who signed as part of Chicago’s international class of 2024. The 6′, 170-pound De Leon played with the Cubs’ Dominican Summer League club in 2024, hitting .277/.431/.433 in 181 plate appearances. He moved up to their Rookie-level Arizona Complex League affiliate in 2025 and slashed .276/.353/.500 in 153 innings at the plate. BA’s Geoff Pontes put him on the list as a sleeper to watch heading into the 2026 season, citing his encouraging exit velocities and plus raw power.
With just 334 professional recording appearances to his name and his 19th birthday six weeks away, De Leon is a pure developmental project for Miami. However, he has been a productive hitter in each of his two pro seasons, even with some fairly concerning swing-and-miss tendencies (28.8% strikeout rate in 2025). He’ll likely head to the Marlins’ Low-A affiliate to start the 2026 season and doesn’t seem likely to be a potential Major League factor until 2028 or 2029 at the earliest.
The Marlins remain a work in progress and will most likely enter 2026 as some sort of playoff long shot, but there are some upward-pointing arrows on the roster, making it an encouraging time for Miami fans.
Michael Cerami of Bleacher Nation first reported that a Cabrera trade between the two teams was close to completion. Kevin Barral of Fish in first place reported Caissie as the likely headliner. Christina De Nicola of MLB.com And Craig Mish of SportsGrid broke the news about the other two prospects in the deal. ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported that the medical review process had been completed and the transaction was official.
#Cubs #acquire #Edward #Cabrera