Chicago Cubs fans who were looking for someone to blame after watching a horrendous pitching staff in 2026 will be disappointed to know that Tommy Hottovy won’t be the team’s scapegoat following this year’s pitching disaster.
Just in case you were wondering whether the Cubs are heading in a different direction heading into 2027, The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney reported on Tuesday that Hottovy is sticking around. Casey Jacobson, who has been with the Cubs since 2019 and has served as the team’s assistant pitching coach for the past two seasons, will also return in his role next year.
Hottovy has become almost bulletproof with the Cubs, having been with the organization since December 2014, first joining the run-prevention department. He has remained the pitching coach since the 2019 season, coaching under three managers: Joe Maddon (2019), David Ross (2020-23), and Craig Counsell for the past three seasons.
In 2026, the Cubs finished the regular season ranked 27th in total pitching (6.0 fWAR), while their pitching staff posted a 4.12 ERA, ranking 14th in MLB. However, two troubling issues Hottovy and the team will need to address quickly heading into the 2027 season are the ridiculously high number of pitcher injuries and the 231 home runs allowed.
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Obviously, not all of these issues fall on Hottovy’s shoulders, as pitchers were brought in with a history of health risks, and home runs should decrease with a change in personnel. However, it doesn’t take away from the fact that, as the pitching coach, Hottovy is responsible for making adjustments, working on game plans to stay away from the home run ball, and making pitchers better.
We’ll see what happens with Edward Cabrera going forward, but he was a huge disappointment in 2026, taking a massive step back as a right-handed starting pitcher with the Cubs. While injuries also played a major role in the team’s pitching-department struggles this past year, Hottovy also has a job to limit them and keep pitchers healthy.
There have been good and bad on the pitching side under Hottovy, but we’re now approaching a decade of his tenure as pitching coach, and the results have to improve. But again, pitching has been an organizational issue, up and down- scouting, development, big-league success- it’s all been subpar for the Cubs for a while.
