The Athletic has live coverage of the 2026 MLB Trade Deadline.CHICAGO — By Monday’s trade deadline, the Chicago Cubs intend to acquire multiple pitchers, aiming to reinforce the staff as a whole for a potential World Series run. This snapshot is based on information from team and league sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity so as to candidly discuss the state of an evolving market.Although the sky-high price and fierce competition from organizations with better farm systems may ultimately force them to pivot in another direction, the Cubs still have not ruled out Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal, the American League’s Cy Young Award winner for the past two seasons.The same logic that led the Cubs to acquire David Peterson from the New York Mets in late June applies to their ongoing interest in Clay Holmes, a ground-ball pitcher nearly ready to return from a fractured fibula, as well as Freddy Peralta, who enjoys a strong relationship with Chicago manager Craig Counsell from their time together with the Milwaukee Brewers.If the Cubs don’t splurge on the rotation, they could go big with a bullpen addition or two — Adrian Morejon, Luke Weaver and Jeff Hoffman are among the names under consideration — that moves the needle.The theme here is Chicago’s elite defense and the organization’s confidence in its ability to look deeper than just the surface-level statistics.Kevin Gausman’s 4.38 ERA with the Toronto Blue Jays this season is not all that attractive. But his strikeout rate (23.9 percent) and walk rate (6.8 percent) are hardly different from last season’s performance on an AL pennant winner.Gausman’s pitch mix (four-seamer, splitter and slider) remains the same as years past. His fastball velocity, while a half-tick down from 2025, is no different than 2024, when he had a 3.83 ERA over 181 innings.That workload is also something that the Cubs could count on from Gausman, 35, who has expressed a preference to finish out this season in Toronto before becoming a free agent.Gausman is averaging nearly 5 2/3 innings per start. Adding that length to the rotation, along with continued momentum from Shota Imanaga and Matthew Boyd, should take a significant amount of stress off the bullpen.Why is everyone watching for hugs before the trade deadline?Tyler Kepner and Lauren Morales-JonesThe Cubs can also use a historical reference with Gausman, who posted a 2.93 ERA in six playoff games (five starts) last year, including two quality starts against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.In hindsight, the Cubs should have pushed harder during the 2017 season to add Justin Verlander to the defending World Series champs. Instead, he moved from Detroit to the Houston Astros and enhanced his Hall of Fame-caliber resume.That missed opportunity left a deep impression on Jed Hoyer, Chicago’s general manager at the time and its current president of baseball operations. The Cubs didn’t make the same mistake when the Texas Rangers made Cole Hamels (and his 4.72 ERA) available ahead of the 2018 trade deadline.“With the Cole Hamels deal, I learned a lesson on Justin Verlander,” Hoyer said during an extended interview last summer. “His stuff was down. He didn’t look good with Detroit. Whenever a player of that age has declining stuff, it’s hard to (know). And then he went to Houston and immediately his stuff ticked up. You try to balance: What is injury? What is age? (It could also be): ‘I’m frustrated in this bad situation right now.’“The next year with Cole Hamels, we didn’t overthink it. He was struggling, and we went and got him. It felt like literally the minute he put our uniform on, he was dominant. That is a little bit of the human factor. You can go pretty poor making that bet over and over. But there are times when that can make sense with a veteran guy with that kind of track record.”In a limited market for starting pitchers under club control beyond this year, the Los Angeles Angels hold two who have drawn particular interest from the Cubs: Reid Detmers and José Soriano, who was scratched from his scheduled start Saturday ahead of the trade deadline. While both are seen as clearly talented and potential building blocks through 2028, the context of this season and the expectations at Wrigley Field also matter.Detmers, the No. 10 pick in the 2020 draft, has spent his entire professional career in the Angels organization. Soriano, who signed with the Angels as a teenager out of the Dominican Republic, briefly moved to the Pittsburgh Pirates’ farm system as a Rule 5 selection, but otherwise has only pitched for the Angels, a franchise that last won a playoff game in 2009 and now appears headed toward its 11th consecutive losing season.Reid Detmers has been with the Angels for his whole career. (Scott Strazzante / Associated Press)That does not mean Detmers or Soriano could not thrive in this environment, but the experience gaps are noticeable as the Cubs try to find the finishing pieces for a roster that, right now, is probably not deep enough or skilled enough to win four postseason rounds.The volume of pitching that the Cubs want to add within the next 48 hours is both a hedge against more injuries as well as a reward for the group’s determination in grinding through adversity.Cade Horton returned to Wrigley Field this weekend “to get a little break from Arizona,” Counsell said, as his recovery process from season-ending surgery on his right elbow continues.Edward Cabrera remains on schedule for two more rehab starts after showing some expected signs of rust in Friday’s outing with Triple-A Iowa, which came nearly six weeks after he went on the injured list with a left hamstring/adductor strain.The club is still determining when and where Daniel Palencia will pitch in a minor-league game, but that is the next step for the hard-throwing reliever working his way back from right elbow inflammation.In a smoother version of this season, the debate would be around whether Horton (7 ⅓ innings pitched) or Cabrera (5.10 ERA) should start Game 1 of a playoff series. Palencia would have established himself as one of the sport’s top closers rather than the Cubs setting a franchise record with 13 pitchers recording at least one save. And the injured list goes on — Justin Steele, Ben Brown, Hunter Harvey, Hoby Milner, et al.Every team has issues, but how the Cubs managed what could have been a pitching disaster is a credit to the entire organization, and a positive indicator for October.“It’s the story,” Boyd said. “It’s the story of what our coaching staff has done. Most important, it’s the story of the guys in this clubhouse, and the guys that are also in the Iowa clubhouse, that have filled roles and gone out there and stepped up. Guys have been called on to take on bigger roles and they’ve answered.“It’s the story of the season, to be where we are as one of the top teams in baseball. It’s an amazing story. It speaks to the character and the willingness of guys to step up in this clubhouse and go do what needs to be done.”