Kevin Gausman expected to make Cubs debut Friday night at Kansas City

CHICAGO (AP) — Kevin Gausman has been connected to the Chicago Cubs since the beginning of his career. Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said the team had asked about his availability for years.

When Chicago finally landed the right-hander in a trade with Toronto on Sunday, well, it wasn't much of a surprise.

“When I told my wife it was the Cubs, she was like, ‘It’s about time,’” Gausman said. “Because just in Baltimore for years, it seemed like it was kind of always a link to here. ... Happy that I’m here finally.”

Gausman was added to Chicago's active roster before it finished a three-game sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers with a 7-6 victory on Wednesday. Left-hander Antoine Kelly was optioned to Triple-A Iowa.

The 35-year-old Gausman is expected to make his Cubs debut Friday night at Kansas City, joining a revamped rotation that also includes Clay Holmes. The Cubs also added reliever Ryan Zeferjahn and left-hander Braxton Garrett in two other deals ahead of Monday’s trade deadline.

“Being a part of a team when they can bring guys in and you know that they’re going for it, it’s almost like a shot of adrenaline and can kind of breathe some life into the team,” Gausman said. “It doesn’t seem like this team needs it, to be honest, but still excited to be here.”

Gausman is 5-10 with a 4.38 ERA in 23 starts this season. He was tagged for seven runs and seven hits in two innings in a 16-2 loss to the Cubs on June 19.

But the durable Gausman brings a solid track record to Chicago. He pitched at least 174 2/3 innings and made at least 31 starts in each of the previous five years. He worked 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball in Toronto’s 5-1 win over St. Louis on Saturday.

Gausman also helped Toronto reach the 2025 World Series, going 2-3 with a 2.93 ERA in six postseason starts. The Blue Jays lost in the Fall Classic to the Dodgers, a possible playoff opponent for the Cubs this year.

“Once you’re there, all you want to do is get back,” Gausman said of the World Series. “So I’m really excited to hopefully get back there with this team.”

Chicago's deadline additions create some intriguing pitching decisions for manager Craig Counsell moving forward. The Cubs also have right-hander Edward Cabrera and relievers Daniel Palencia and Hoby Milner on rehab stints with Triple-A Iowa.

Colin Rea is back in the bullpen for now after the Cubs decided to skip his next turn in the rotation. But more changes are likely on the way.

“I think we’re going to have guys pitch at doing things they maybe haven’t done in the past as much, and that may be a little, you know, different for them,” Counsell said, “and we may have to kind of be careful with how we manage them in those roles, but these things will figure themselves out. I also think that we have some competition kind of in the starting rotation right now, too.”

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Toronto Blue Jays' Kevin Gausman (34) works against the St. Louis Cardinals during the second inning of a baseball game in Toronto, Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026. (Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press via AP)

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The United States announced on Wednesday that it had suspended all government operations in the Mexican state of Michoacan because of a "threat to U.S. interests," including a halt to the inspections of avocados required for their export.

While the U.S. Embassy did not specify the nature of the threat in its security alert, Michoacan Gov. Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla said on social media that the temporary halt to inspections was intended to safeguard workers following recent arrests linked to extortion. The inspections are necessary for avocados to be shipped to the United States and their suspension could disrupt exports.

The western state of Michoacan is the leading exporter of avocados to the U.S. and has a high level of organized crime activity with at least four cartels — designated as terrorist organizations by the Trump administration — operating in the region. Besides trafficking drugs, cartels also make money through extortion, including of the avocado industry.

Michoacan State Security Secretary Antonio Cruz told The Associated Press that one of the arrests mentioned by the governor was of “El Poncho,” the alias of Alfonso Fernández Magallón, leader of a local cartel operating in the avocado-growing region around Los Reyes.

U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson welcomed the arrest, which came over the weekend. The U.S. government had offered a $5 million reward for Fernández Magallón’s arrest.

Cruz said his department was unaware of any direct incidents involving the avocado inspectors. Nevertheless, 300 security personnel were deployed to the Los Reyes area as a preventive measure.

The governor said the priority was to “ensure the security conditions necessary for these operations to resume normally,” as has happened in the past.

Mexico supplies approximately 80% of U.S. avocado imports - a product known in the region as “green gold.” Its cultivation generates around 200,000 jobs in Michoacán alone.

In 2025, Mexico sold $3.65 billion worth of avocados to the United States, and in the first four months of this year, those exports rose by 35% compared to the same period in the previous year.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture sends inspectors in Mexico to monitor plantations and packing houses to ensure that exported produce is free of pests. Threats and violence against the inspectors have caused the U.S. to suspend inspections in the past.

FILE - Crates of avocados wait to be processed at a packing plant in Uruapan, Mexico, Feb. 16, 2022. (AP Photo/Armando Solis, File)