The Chicago Cubs saw something in Edward Cabrera.
The organization had coveted the right-hander long before they acquired him in a trade with the Miami Marlins in January. Cabrera’s first season with the Cubs hasn’t seen the 28-year-old fully tap into the version they believe he can be.
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Cabrera brought a 4.06 ERA and 94 ERA+ into Wednesday’s start against the Milwaukee Brewers, which he abruptly exited with a trainer after throwing one pitch in the fourth inning because of a blister on his right middle finger. Cabrera’s departure was one of many disappointing moments in a sloppy 5-0 loss to the Brewers, as the Cubs got swept for the first time this season.
“We’re in a funk right now, and it’s up to us to change it,” manager Craig Counsell said. “We’re the ones who are going to change it.”
Cabrera has a history of dealing with blisters on his middle finger, most recently missing the first two weeks of his 2025 season with the Marlins because of a blister on the same finger. He had been dealing with the blister issue entering Wednesday’s start, but it had been manageable until the fourth inning.
“Once the blister’s there, everything’s difficult. The control is difficult, velocity is difficult,” Cabrera said through an interpreter. “I’m not worried. My mentality is in five days I’m going to go out there and pitch again.”
Counsell wasn’t as resolute as Cabrera that the right-hander will be able to make his next start, noting, “you take a guy out of a start, the next start’s in question.”
The Cubs (29-21) tallied more errors (three) than hits (two) in their season-high fifth consecutive loss. None was more costly than Pete Crow-Armstrong whiffing on fielding David Hamilton’s single to center field in the second inning, which allowed three runs, including Hamilton, to score. It’s been a tough couple of days for Crow-Armstrong, starting with his vulgar interaction with a fan during Sunday’s game against the White Sox.
Crow-Armstrong, who hasn’t committed more than three errors in a big-league season, called his two errors in the last two games “genuinely laughable.”
“One thing I can fall back on is that it’s never really a lack of focus, but trying too hard and trying to make up for the lack of production that I’ve given this team and this city, not acting how I should,” Crow-Armstrong said. “I think anything physically usually starts mentally, and that’s just what I’m showing everybody right now. So, show up and keep pushing, but that can’t happen.
“I’ve had really nice people to lean on during my tough times up here, but again you can only have so many conversations and lean on so many people for so many different things that it’s up to me to turn this around.”
Down three big-league starters to the injured list, the Cubs must hope Cabrera can move past the blister quickly. The Cubs need him to get on a roll. After tossing 11 2/3 scoreless innings through his first two starts, Cabrera owns a 5.26 ERA in his last seven outings, allowing at least three earned runs in each.
A few underlying red flags have emerged nearly two months into the season, something pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said the Cubs are keeping an eye on. Most notably, Cabrera isn’t getting as much extension in his delivery’s release point — his changeup, for example, went from 6.6 feet last year to 6.4 feet — which isn’t a huge gap but enough to take note while his velocity has been down, including on his four-seam fastball (97 mph in 2025 to 95.7 mph this year), changeup (94.2 mph to 92.6 mph) and sinker (96.9 mph to 95.9 mph).
Photos: Milwaukee Brewers 5, Chicago Cubs 0 at Wrigley Field
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“My take with Edward is he’s a guy who has had injury flare-ups in the past — I’m not saying that he’s backing off, but he’s in a kind of cruise-control type of delivery right now, which I know he feels he recovers from,” Hottovy told the Tribune. “It might not be his max output, but as we’re building confidence and as he’s building that confidence into the season, I do think you’ll see that kind of trend up. He’s not purposely trying to throw slower.
“He knows there’s a lot of season left. He knows you want to pitch deep into the season, so he’s trying to navigate that a little bit. It’s like, OK, how much can I step on it to go deep for the team now, but also pitch deep into the season? What we’re hoping for is the most innings he’s had in a season.”
Cabrera’s changeup has been a vital pitch to his success, and it’s continued to be a key component to navigating opposing lineups. The Cubs are still trying to unlock the fastball within his repertoire, though there are some small improvements. It’s not producing as much hard contact, down 21.5% from 2025, with an increase in Whiff%, a measure of swings that don’t make contact, to 25.5%.
“You don’t ever want to say a guy who throws 96, 97 (mph) and his fastball gets hit so don’t throw it, like, I want to find out why,” Hottovy said. “I want to find out, is it because of how he’s thinking about using it or is it an execution thing or something like that? For me, though, it’s simplifying things for him and what a good quality recipe is for him to have success because I think in the past he can do a lot of different things, so go do all that and throw it all for strikes and you’ll be really good, and that works a lot of times.”
Hottovy wants Cabrera to think about how his pitches play off each other. If he throws a breaking ball early in the count for a strike, Hottovy explained, it can help protect Cabrera’s elite changeup by not having to show that pitch too many times during a start or even within an at-bat. Teams with good veteran hitters might be able to eliminate looking for Cabrera’s curveball or slider and instead sit on his fastball and changeup.
“It’s just talking him through that,” Hottovy said. “When we see teams make adjustments, when we see teams try to hunt certain areas, how do we adjust and how do we attack?”
As the Cubs continue to navigate the injuries to the rotation, Cabrera still possesses the type of upside that in-season improvements could make him one of their best starters by the end of the year. Clearly, though, there are still adjustments to be made.
“I thought there’s a lot of quality for four innings, and then it kind of fell off a little bit in that fifth inning on the South Side, but I think he would expect better, and I think he has better in him,” Counsell said prior to Wednesday’s game. “And it’s really just about getting those outs and making pitches every single pitch and moving on to the next pitch and keep executing.”