CHICAGO — Nearly three months removed from the 2025 MLB trade deadline, Jed Hoyer is still standing firm in how things went down for the Chicago Cubs when it came to the starting pitching market.

Watch Jed Hoyer’s full end-of-season press conference only on the Marquee Sports Network app.

By now, the discourse surrounding the Cubs’ deadline moves has had its fair share of time in the spotlight as the back half of the season unfolded.

The Cubs, plagued by injuries to the starting rotation, were in the market for an impact pitcher for their playoff push. Names they were linked with lingered throughout the summer: The Miami Marlins’ Sandy Alcántara, the Washington Nationals’ MacKenzie Gore and the Kansas City Royals’ Seth Lugo were a few of the most prominent ones.

But July 31 came and went, and the Cubs didn’t splurge for any big names. They instead made a quieter deal with Washington for former Atlanta Braves standout Michael Soroka, whose subsequent injury in his first start at Wrigley Field just days later put Hoyer in the hot seat.

The fallout made headlines for days, but the Cubs’ president of baseball operations made it clear after the season ended that his stance is unchanged. In part, because the asking price was exorbitant to acquire a game-changing rotation arm.

“When I think back on the most obvious thing that people talk about — starting pitching at the trade deadline — I haven’t really thought about that much since early August,” Hoyer said in his end-of-season press conference last week. “I know what the market was and I know what the prices were, and I also know that other teams weren’t able to acquire that kind of pitching talent either.

“It is really difficult to (add starting pitching) mid-season. Now, I think it’s becoming even more difficult with the new playoff format,” Hoyer continued. “Teams are closer together, there are fewer sellers. There are many more teams in the race that have a chance, and then even some teams that weren’t in the race that made decisions to not trade.”

The Marlins, who seemed to be clear sellers at the All-Star break, played above-.500 baseball in the second half and weren’t eliminated from playoff contention until the final week of the regular season. Alcántara and Edward Cabrera, the team’s top two pitching trade chips, were never dealt. The last-place Nationals held onto Gore, as did the Royals with Lugo. The Minnesota Twins sold off a chunk of their roster, but starter Joe Ryan — who was also linked with the Cubs among other clubs — stayed put.

All the while, the Cubs’ starting rotation didn’t truly take shape until the second half of the season.

Offseason signing Matthew Boyd led all starters by a large margin with 179.2 innings pitched in 31 outings. Shota Imanaga threw for 144.2 innings after a hamstring injury sidelined him for nearly two months beginning in early May. Early-season savior Colin Rea, who replaced Justin Steele in April after the latter was ruled out for the year, made 27 starts and tossed 143.1 innings. Two separate IL stints limited Jameson Taillon to just 23 starts and 129.2 innings while May call-up Cade Horton pitched with a workload limit and logged 114 innings over 22 starts.

That core five posted a combined 3.52 ERA across their starts. But the injuries that piled up affected them in the long run, especially in the playoffs when Horton was sidelined for its entirety due to a rib fracture. In hindsight, adding a starter was a slam dunk move for the Cubs, but Hoyer maintained that it was never that easy for anyone in the league.

“That’s become more difficult — how do we just continue to add depth and arms?” Hoyer said. “I don’t think that’s unique to the Cubs. When you watch this postseason and look at different teams, everyone is focused on that.

“You’re not having a lot of guys going deep in games, you’re using a ton of arms and the early rounds of the postseason involve, for everyone, a lot bullpening.”

The Cubs’ 2026 rotation will likely feature a healthy Steele — who is ramping up his rehab — and Horton, as well as Boyd, Imanaga and Taillon. Hoyer also hinted at his confidence ahead of making any offseason roster moves — and while he didn’t specify where the Cubs were looking to strengthen their group, he made clear where there is always room for improvement.

“It puts a lot more emphasis on pitching depth than ever before,” Hoyer said. “We did a good job at that this year in a lot of ways, but I think we have to continue to push to get better.”