CHICAGO -- Kevin Gausman was on the Blue Jays’ team plane on Sunday night when word arrived that he was being traded to the Cubs. After five years and three playoff runs with Toronto, the veteran pitcher got to spend another couple hours with his former team before turning the page to this new chapter.
“I just took a free flight to Houston for no reason,” Gausman said on Wednesday morning at his new locker in the Cubs’ clubhouse. “It was a little crazy, but I’m really excited to be around these guys. Watching the team play the last two days, why wouldn’t you be excited?”
Gausman watched the Cubs beat the two-time defending World Series-champion Dodgers in an electric atmosphere at the Friendly Confines on Monday and Tuesday night. The righty made two starts against the Dodgers in last year’s Fall Classic and knows the road back to baseball’s stage is likely to go through Los Angeles in the National League playoffs this fall.
With the Cubs -- who boast baseball’s top defense, one of the top lineups in the game and now a fortified pitching staff -- Gausman knows the recipe exists for an exciting October. And he wants to do everything possible to help the North Siders get back to the World Series for the first time since their 2016 triumph.
“I wish every big leaguer could experience playing in the World Series,” Gausman said. “That’s what we all dreamt of as kids. To be able to do it was so much fun, but also very heartbreaking. Once you’re there, all you want to do is get back. I’m really excited to, hopefully, get back there with this team.”
As things stand right now, the 35-year-old Gausman is lined up to start for the Cubs on Friday in the opener of a road series against the Royals. Cubs manager Craig Counsell is giving the veteran some extra rest after the Deadline before handing him the ball for his Chicago debut.
Had Gausman stayed on his normal schedule, Thursday would have been his day to start. As it happens, that is when the Blue Jays return to Wrigley Field for a makeup game against Chicago. If Gausman had remained with Toronto after the Deadline, he was looking forward to that outing against the Cubs, given they scored seven runs in two innings against him on June 19.
“I’ve had this game circled for a while knowing it was going to be my revenge game,” Gausman said with a laugh. “That’s what I was joking with all the guys. And then at first, I thought I was maybe going to pitch against the Blue Jays, so that was going to be a little strange. But now I’m pitching Friday, that’ll be nice.”
The 35-year-old Gausman is in the final year of a five-year, $110 million contract that he signed with the Blue Jays in what was one of the top free-agent deals in Toronto history. This year, the righty’s ERA has been a tad higher (4.38 in 23 starts) than typical, but Gausman’s underlying numbers are mostly in line with his usual production.
Gausman really broke out as an All-Star and Cy Young contender with the Giants in 2021 and logged a 3.34 ERA with 185 innings and averaged 204 strikeouts per season between ‘21-25. Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said he had made efforts to acquire Gausman earlier in his career when he was with Baltimore before the pitcher really took flight.
“We kept asking about him,” Hoyer said. “He went to San Francisco and took off and we were like, ‘Ugh.’ We’ve been asking about this guy for years, thinking this is the talent he had.”
Gausman cracked a smile when asked about the Cubs finally bringing him into the fold.
“It’s funny,” he said. “When I told my wife it was the Cubs, she was like, ‘It’s about time.’ In Baltimore for years, it seemed like there was kind of always a link to here. I’m happy that I’m here finally.”
The Cubs are thrilled about it, too.
“He’s been a durable, battle-tested starter that really fits,” Counsell said. “It’s 10 starts and hopefully some starts later than that. He fits everything that we’re looking for.”