Tarik Skubal is by far the best free agent available this offseason, but his sweepstakes will come down to a few select teams.
He is expected to sign a record-breaking pitching contract, and there are only a handful of teams that will be willing to spend what it takes to land him. Everyone will have their eyes on the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, New York Mets and Toronto Blue Jays, but ESPN's David Schoenfield thinks the Chicago Cubs are the "perfect fit" for him.
"The Cubs are the perfect fit: a big-market franchise in desperate need of an ace after the rotation ranked 18th in ERA and 21st in strikeout rate," wrote Schoenfield. "On top of that, Shota Imanaga, Kevin Gausman, David Peterson and Matthew Boyd (if he exercises his opt-out) are free agents and every other starter is coming off an injury (Cade Horton will miss most or all of 2027). While the Cubs have room to spend due to all the expired contracts, Seiya Suzuki and Ian Happ are also key free agents, so the front office might ultimately decide to spread the money around rather than spend a huge chunk on Skubal."
The Cubs have the ability to spend big, but don't generally find themselves in the conversation for a player like Skubal. However, last offseason they spent big on Alex Bregman, and they know they have a very good group of position players led by Pete Crow-Armstrong.
Their rotation is not in a good spot, and adding an ace would be a great place to start. On top of that, it has to sting knowing the Milwaukee Brewers have won the division four straight seasons and won the World Series this year despite losing Craig Counsell and spending far less money.
The Cubs are going to have to be aggressive to catch up to Milwaukee, and without an elite starting rotation, that will be tough.
It won't be easy to outbid other big-market teams for Skubal, however. Even if the Cubs want him and he would be a great fit, they will still have to make a franchise-altering financial commitment to land him.