Cubs Acquire RHP Tyler Ferguson from A’s for Cash

The Cubs made yet another pitching acquisition on Thursday, acquiring righty Tyler Ferguson from the Athletics in exchange for cash considerations. Ferguson was designated for assignment yesterday and will fill the 40-man spot that was cleared when Corbin Martin was DFA’d. The 32-year-old Ferguson has bounced back and forth between Triple-A Las Vegas and bigs over the last three seasons with increasingly poor results, hence the A’s cutting him loose.

After appearing in 48 games with a 3.68 ERA and 30% strikeout rate in 2024, he posted a 4.66 ERA with a 22% K rate last year over 56 outings. He’s only appeared in one game this year, so not much to take away, but he gave up four runs on two homers while recording only four outs. Ferguson works mainly east-west with a low-three-quarter slow, featuring a mid-90s heater, a sweeper, sinker, cutter, and change. The sinker does actually have quite a bit of depth, and it’s been his best pitch by far.

I wonder if the Cubs see some things they can tweak, like maybe making the sinker his primary weapon and possibly tweaking his breaking stuff to play off of it better. At the very least, I’d think getting the sinker to more than 15% of his repertoire would be a good start. We’ll probably find out soon enough, because they’re going to keep recycling the bullpen.