Before he stepped away as president of baseball operations, Theo Epstein said the Cubs were planning to pursue rotation depth from outside the organization as part of their offseason strategy. Now Epstein is gone and so are two of the pitchers who’d been expected to play key roles in that rotation. Yu Darvish was the biggest of those, traded with the oft-ignored Victor Caratini in a quantity-over-quality trade that saved the Cubs money and created a wash in terms of rotation personnel.
Then Tuesday brought word that righty Colin Rea, lightly penciled in as the fifth(ish) starter, had been granted his release in order to pursue an opportunity in Japan.