Edward Cabrera dominated his Cubs debut, tossing two scoreless innings with three strikeouts and showcasing a scorching fastball and a nasty changeup.
One of the biggest moves that the Chicago Cubs made this offseason was trading for starting pitcher Edward Cabrera.
The Cubs needed to acquire a frontline starting pitcher this winter and traded for one of the top available pitchers in the trade market. Cabrera is coming off a solid season in which he finished with a 3.53 ERA and a career-high 150 strikeouts in 137 ⅔ innings.
On Friday, fans got their first look at Cabrera in a Cubs uniform. He drew the start against the Cleveland Guardians and made his spring debut.
And the 27-year-old looked as advertised in his two innings of work.
Cabrera threw two scoreless innings with three strikeouts. He didn’t allow a hitter to reach base, and it’s easy to see why the Cubs traded away their top prospect to acquire the hard-throwing right-hander.
His fastball averaged 97 mph in his first spring start while topping out at 98.1 mph. He induced two whiffs alone on his four-seam fastball and got another four swings and misses on his offspeed stuff.
Cabrera’s best pitch on Friday was his changeup. He induced three whiffs on that pitch alone, which included two swinging strike outs in the second inning. He perfectly placed his changeup at the bottom of the zone to both Gabriel Arias and CJ Kayfus. Both hitters then went down swinging.
It was an impressive spring debut for the new Cubs pitcher. He threw 20 of his 31 pitches for strikes and threw five different pitches in the game (four-seam fastball, changeup, curveball, sinker, and slider). 29% of his pitchers were either whiffs or called strikes.
The Cubs are looking for Cabrera to emerge as a frontline starter this season. He just put together the best numbers of his career in 2025, and Chicago is hoping he can be even more consistent on the mound this year.
Cabrera is exactly what the Cubs needed in their rotation for 2026. He’s a hard-throwing pitcher who strikes out batters at a high rate.
The 27-year-old ranked in the 74th percentile in both chase rate (30.3%) and strikeout rate (25.8%) and ranked in the 78th percentile in whiff rate (29.4%). His average four-seam fastball (96.9 mph) velocity also placed him in the 94th percentile.
While fans shouldn’t overreact too much to a two-inning spring start, Cabrera did look solid in his Cubs debut. He seemed to be throwing the four-seam fastball with heat, and having a 94 mph changeup is such a game-changer.
It was a good first start for Cabrera.