Edward Cabrera Looks Ready to Return to Rotation After 5 No-Hit Innings at AA

The Cubs are quickly about to go from not enough pitching to too much, and one of the major reinforcements will be Edward Cabrera. Though the big righty has been somewhat disappointing through 14 big league starts, he’s looked tremendous in two rehab outings as he works back from a hamstring strain. It’s possible, likely even, that the Cubs used the time off to recalibrate some of the mechanical issues that had dogged Cabrera in the early going.

That was the case during his IL stint across late May and early June due to a blister issue, as the pitching gurus were able to make little tweaks aimed at raising his arm slot. Cabrera had dropped down a little too far, mainly due to what pitching coach Tommy Hottovy explained was inefficiency in his lower body. That resulted in his arm flattening out and getting overly whippy, which then caused his stuff to play worse than usual.

While working through a leg injury might be ideal for a pitcher who was not activating his lower half well enough, taking that time off from full-effort throwing can allow for better patterning. Then it was just a matter of Cabrera trusting his hammy enough to really get into it upon returning to the mound. Based on his performances so far, it sure looks like he’s doing just that.

In his first rehab outing with Triple-A Iowa, Cabrera threw four innings of one-hit ball with eight strikeouts and no walks. He gave up an unearned run due to some sloppy defense, but was still relatively efficient with only 55 pitches. What’s more, he touched 99 mph and sat 97.4 on the afternoon. That’s better than his MLB average of 96.1 and is right in line with where he was throwing coming out of his first IL stint.

With the I-Cubs playing at the Field of Dreams on Tuesday, Cabrera and Daniel Palencia — who we’ll address in a bit — were assigned to Double-A Knoxville to continue their work. Cabrera once again had the velocity up on Tuesday, working five hitless innings with seven strikeouts and a walk on 64 pitches. The velocity on his fastball wasn’t the most interesting aspect of these outings, either.

Edward Cabrera threw 5 innings of no-hit baseball in his rehab start in Knoxville tonight ? 5 IP | 0 H | 0 ER | 1 BB | 7 Ks ?‍? pic.twitter.com/QQYAisXqHM

— Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) August 12, 2026

As Nate Roper pointed out after both starts, Cabrera appears to be throwing a “reverse” slider with more velo and different movement than his usual offering. Rather than moving a few inches to the glove side, all of his sliders from both rehab appearances had arm-side run. They were also thrown around 91 mph, up about a tick from before.

Even with the understanding that he’s facing lower levels of competition, it’s hard not to be excited about how Cabrera can help the Cubs once he returns. The expectation for now is that he’ll return to the rotation, perhaps as part of a six-man unit that will allow Craig Counsell to set things up for the playoffs. Cabrera will probably shift to the bullpen when the time comes, giving him a chance to empty the tank and perhaps throw even harder.

“He’s got an electric arm,” Hottovy told reporters recently. “It’d be crazy not to think about him coming into a postseason game and (throwing) the back-end two, three innings of a game. Our goal is to get him back as a starter. How things end up at the end of the year — you know how the postseason is, it’s an all-hands-on-deck approach.”

Palencia also has an electric arm, but it appears to have suffered a brownout during his last appearance. He only managed to record two outs on Tuesday night, giving up four earned runs on 24 pitches. Though he didn’t surrender a hit, he walked four and hit another after relieving Cabrera. You’d rather see him give up a tank than spray it all over the place, but the main goal is to be healthy.

The same is true for top pitching prospect Jaxon Wiggins, who may be prepping to pitch out of the bullpen in Chicago when rosters expand. The righty went to the IL with shoulder soreness after just two starts with the I-Cubs, missing over two months before returning in mid-June to work his way back. He rejoined Iowa on July 10 and made five starts, none of which lasted four innings. He worked in relief for the first time on Tuesday night, punching out two and touching 98 mph in an inning of work.

Then you’ve got Ben Brown, Justin Steele, and others working their respective ways back to competition. As I’ve noted before, this is a very good problem for Counsell and the Cubs to have. It’s just too bad rosters only expand to 28 in September, as it’s going to be tough to find room for everyone if the various recoveries continue to go well.

It wouldn’t be right to say that any of these injuries were a good thing, though the Cubs figure to get a whole lot of guys back with plenty of juice left for the playoff push. Milwaukee can’t say the same, and that could play a big role in whether and how the Cubs will be able to overtake their rivals. Even if they’re still looking at a Wild Card berth, all this pitching gives the Cubs better than just a puncher’s chance when postseason play begins.