{"id":673538,"date":"2026-04-11T20:52:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T20:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/673538\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T20:52:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T20:52:19","slug":"insider-addresses-likelihood-of-lucas-giolito-signing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/673538\/","title":{"rendered":"Insider Addresses Likelihood of Lucas Giolito Signing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/tag\/chicago-cubs\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"111\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\">Chicago Cubs<\/a> entered the 2026 MLB season with a strong rotation even with Justin Steele on the injured list recovering from elbow surgery. Following a week-long stretch that saw Cade Horton and Matthew Boyd go down, fans have wondered if the team could bring in free agent Lucas Giolito.<\/p>\n<p>Giolito pitched well this past season in his first year back from elbow surgery, compiling a 3.41 ERA with a 1.29 WHIP across 145 innings pitched. However, he remains a free agent and would seemingly provide Chicago with a viable starter to eat innings.<\/p>\n<p>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/mlb\/mlb-power-rankings-week-2-2026\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\">MLB Power Rankings Week 2, See Where Cubs Land<\/a><\/p>\n<p>However, per <a href=\"https:\/\/fansided.com\/mlb\/mlb-insider-answers-biggest-questions-where-cubs-red-sox-and-giants-go-from-here-01knspexfsdy\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\">Fansided<\/a>\u2018s MLB insider Robert Murray, the Cubs are \u201cmost likely\u201d to move forward with their internal options to fill the void in the rotation. A lot of that has to do with the fact that Chicago\u2019s front office reportedly is very \u201cconfident\u201d in what it already has for pitching depth.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, Steele isn\u2019t that far away from a return. After undergoing UCL surgery just a year ago, the 2023 All-Star recently faced hitters in live batting practice to begin the month. He\u2019s making gradual progress in his recovery, and after a multi-start rehab assignment, the hope is he rejoins the Cubs rotation by the start of June.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, Chicago\u2019s internal options are performing adequately. Colin Rea sports a 3.18 ERA with just four earned runs allowed across 11.1 innings, and Javier Assad allowed just one hit in 5.2 scoreless innings in his first start.<\/p>\n<p>This isn\u2019t even accounting for top prospect Jaxon Wiggins. The 24-year-old righty is currently making starts for Triple-A Iowa. While he hasn\u2019t quite looked major-league ready early in the season, the organization is hopeful he could step in to make starts if necessary this summer.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<img alt=\"avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_5578.jpeg\"  class=\"avatar avatar-70 photo\" height=\"70\" width=\"70\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"low\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\tMatt  Johnson  is  Senior  Editor  of  NFL  and  College  Football  for  Sportsnaut.  His  work,  including  weekly  NFL  and  college  &#8230; More about <a class=\"more-bio\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/author\/wisconsinboymakesgoodincali\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Matt Johnson<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Cubs entered the 2026 MLB season with a strong rotation even with Justin Steele on the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2399],"tags":[5,138,24,4245,161,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-673538","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-cubs","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-cubs","11":"tag-chicagocubs","12":"tag-cubs","13":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116388060534529321","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}