By acquiring the former top prospect and his triple-digit heat, Chicago bets on its pitching lab to harness elite strikeout upside while taming persistent control issues.
The Chicago Cubs have traded for yet another pitcher.
The Cubs officially traded for Yosver Zulueta on Monday morning. Zulueta was recently designated for assignment by the Seattle Mariners, and the North Siders will take a chance on the former top-30 prospect.
Zulueta hasn’t quite lived up to his prospect status after signing with the Toronto Blue Jays out of Cuba for $1 million back in 2019. He has been designated for assignment three times and traded twice since 2024.
However, Zulueta is exactly the type of pitcher the Cubs should be taking a chance on. He has a mean fastball that touches 98-99 mph, and the stuff is there for the right-hander to eventually turn into a high-quality reliever.
Zulueta has a career 3.89 ERA and 321 strikeouts across 245 ⅓ innings pitched in his Minor League career. While his early-season struggles at Triple-A (5.75 ERA) led to him being designated for assignment last week, there is some potential here with the 28-year-old.
What made Zulueta such an appealing trade target for the Cubs is his strikeout upside. He carried a high strikeout rate in each of his first four Minor League seasons from 2022 to 2025. That’s a telling sign that he has electric stuff on the mound.
Here’s his strikeout rate in those four seasons:
2022: 33.9% (Single-A, High-A, Double-A, Triple-A)
2023: 25.4% (Triple-A)
2024: 26.7% (Triple-A)
2025: 31.2% (Triple-A)
Now, Zulueta is far from a perfect pitcher. He lacks serious control on the mound, and walks continue to be a problem. The hard-throwing right-hander walked 16 batters across 20 ⅓ innings (16.3% walk rate) at Triple-A this year before his trade to the Cubs.
The Cuban pitcher has also struggled in his first two chances in the big leagues. He had a 4.96 ERA with a 1.347 WHIP across 16 ⅓ innings with the Reds in 2024, and had a 6.14 ERA with a 1.227 WHIP across 7 ⅓ innings with the same team in 2025.
Zulueta will now work exclusively with the Cubs' pitching lab in hopes of reaching his full potential. He has shown encouraging things on the mound in the past and was even selected to the SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game back in 2022 and 2023.
This is an exciting pickup for the Cubs because he can turn into something meaningful down the line. He’s a hard-throwing righty with some serious potential to take his game to the next level with the right adjustments.
Zulueta was optioned to Triple-A Iowa following this trade. He will continue to develop in the Cubs’ Minor League system, and the team will work on adjusting his mechanics and likely his arsenal to help him be more consistent on the mound.
The fact that he already throws 99 mph and can strike out batters at an elite clip means the basis is there for him to eventually break out.
