Cubs Avoid Arbitration with Justin Steele, Other Eligible Players

Thursday at noon CT was the deadline for teams and arbitration-eligible players to agree to contract terms for the 2025 season, and many of those deals are being reported this afternoon. If agreements aren’t reached, salary figures will be exchanged after 7pm CT and the “fun” of arbitration begins. As of this initial publication, the Cubs have reached agreements with four of their six remaining arb-eligible players.

That number is far lower than it was earlier in the offseason, but the Cubs have parted ways with several players via DFA, non-tender, and trade since then.

Julian Merryweather ($1.225 million) and Keegan Thompson ($850,000) both reached agreements back in November, giving the Cubs cheap upside in the bullpen. Nate Pearson agreed to a $1.35 million contract per Mark Feinsand, so there’s another reliever on a very reasonable deal. The award for the second-largest arbitration salary on the team goes to Justin Steele, who settled for $6.55 million and should be in line for an extension in the near future. That figure was first reported by Robert Murray.

Kyle Tucker should nearly triple that amount, whether it’s via agreement or the arbitration process. It would be an egregious misstep for the Cubs to pull some file-and-trial shenanigans here, so I assume this is just a matter of the deal not being reported yet. Either that or the two sides are actually engaged in extension talks, which is possible even if a lot of you don’t believe the Cubs will spend what it takes.

That leaves only Eli Morgan, the righty reliever they acquired from the Guardians back in November. He was projected to earn just $1 million, so it’s hard to see there being enough disparity for this one to go to the table. More to come as we get info.