javier assad has put the Chicago Cubs’ pitching plans under fresh strain after an exceptional World Baseball Classic outing for Team Mexico against Great Britain and a sharp, scoreless start to his spring workload.
What happens when Javier Assad keeps forcing the Cubs off “Plan A”?
The Cubs’ starting pitching depth has been described as extensive, with a rotation picture that includes Matthew Boyd, Cade Horton, Edward Cabrera, Jameson Taillon, and Shota Imanaga, while Justin Steele is expected back from elbow surgery by mid-season. Behind them sit additional options, including Colin Rea, Ben Brown, Jordan Wicks, and javier assad.
That depth is also where the tension starts. The working assumption outlined around the club is that assad could begin the 2026 season at Triple-A Iowa, not purely on performance, but because he is one of the few Cubs pitchers with minor league options remaining. Yet the spring results described so far complicate that path: he has thrown 4. 1 scoreless innings in Cactus League play, and followed with 3. 2 more scoreless innings in a World Baseball Classic start for Team Mexico against Great Britain.
Cubs manager Craig Counsell has openly framed the roster build as flexible rather than fixed. He described a “Plan A” while emphasizing that durability and the need for more than the core group of pitchers will shape decisions as the season unfolds, and that how the team builds itself out is “not set in stone. ” In that context, assad’s spring sharpness shifts the internal question from whether the Cubs can stash him, to when the major league club will need his outs.
What if spring dominance and WBC form collide with roster math?
Assad’s recent form arrives after a 2025 season described as injury-marred, keeping him off the big league roster until August 12. Now healthy, his early performances have renewed discussion about his status as an overlooked asset who has been pushed to the margins of rotation planning despite consistent success.
Over four years and 331 innings, he has posted a 3. 43 ERA while working as both a starter and reliever. That track record, paired with this spring’s clean results, creates a direct challenge to any plan that treats him as a simple depth piece. At the same time, there remains hesitation about handing him a full-time starter role, with the concern tied to underlying metrics and what those numbers imply about a pitcher who is not characterized as overpowering.
Counsell’s comments capture the balancing act. He noted the organization does not need to force a precise role fit right now, while also signaling inevitability: the Cubs will need assad’s outs at some point, and the timing is the real unknown. The organization’s problem, then, is not a lack of uses for assad; it is deciding whether the best use is immediate and prominent, or delayed and reactive.
What happens next after the NLDS debate resurfaces?
Assad’s strong current performance also reopens a lingering postseason “what-if” described from the 2025 National League Division Series against Milwaukee. In that account, Counsell started Matthew Boyd in Game 1 on three days’ rest, even though assad had been pitching better at the end of the regular season and had a full five days’ rest. The series began badly for Chicago: Milwaukee scored nine runs in the first two innings, Boyd lasted 0. 2 innings and allowed six runs, and then an untested Soroka, described as having pitched only 8. 1 innings for the Cubs, surrendered three earned runs.
The account goes further, stating that Counsell not only did not pitch assad in the series but removed him from the roster entirely, despite assad being described as the club’s best option for preventing runners on base from scoring—suggesting he could have been used in relief if not in a starting role.
The same retelling points to Game 2 as another misstep: Counsell started Shota Imanaga despite being described as a league leader in home runs allowed. In that game, Imanaga gave up two homers among five hits and was charged with four earned runs in 2. 2 innings. Chicago fell into a 0–2 hole and ultimately lost the series 3–2 despite what was characterized as a valiant effort.
Now, as the Cubs weigh how to allocate a large pool of starters and swing options, assad’s spring and World Baseball Classic performance sharpen the stakes. If the club has already lived through a scenario where not having him available—or not trusting him—became part of the postmortem, then every scoreless outing in March effectively raises the cost of under-using him again.
Health remains the central variable. The outlook presented is straightforward: if assad stays healthy and keeps pitching at this level, he can help deliver October baseball to Chicago and position himself to be part of an October roster in 2026, with broader team questions still unresolved, including whether the bats fade in July and August and whether the bullpen gets rebuilt.
For now, the trend line is clear even if the role is not: javier assad is pitching too well to be treated as an afterthought, and the Cubs’ next roster decision will reveal how quickly performance can rewrite “Plan A. ”
