The Cubs declined their $3.3MM club option on righty Javier Assad yesterday, reports Jordan Bastian of MLB.com. He remains under club control as an arbitration-eligible player. The team didn’t formally announce the decision at any point.
Assad played the 2026 season on a one-year, $1.8MM deal that included a $3.3MM club option for 2027. He and the Cubs agreed to that deal last winter, buying out his first arb year and giving the team some cost certainty in the event that Assad had a big year. Instead, the righty split the season between Triple-A Iowa and Chicago, functioning primarily as a swingman when he was on the big league roster.