CHICAGO – When the Chicago Cubs went into the offseason, they had two key areas to upgrade offensively. They landed the superstar bat they needed when they acquired slugger Kyle Tucker from the Houston Astros on Dec. 13. That same day the Cubs announced the signing of veteran catcher Carson Kelly to bolster the other area of their lineup that needed to be addressed this winter.

The Cubs wanted to find a catcher to pair in a 1A-1B setup for 2025 with Miguel Amaya, who showed promise last year when the 25-year-old made needed adjustments at the plate midseason to hit .277 with a .326 on-base percentage and .785 OPS over the final three months. Amaya possesses the type of upside following his first full major-league season that makes it appealing for the Cubs to couple him with Kelly, entering his 10th season with his fifth team.

“I think back to when I was 25 playing in the big leagues and there’s a lot thrown at you as a player, so you’re juggling learning the staff, new guys being at the big-league level and then hitting as well,” Kelly said after he signed. “There’s a lot of attributes and a lot of things that you have to balance. So coming in I look forward to meeting him and talking with him and seeing how he operates. I look forward to picking his brain, maybe learning some things about his game that I can apply to mine and how we can be the best team to go out and win ballgames.”

The Cubs need more offensive production from their catcher position, which ranked among the bottom third in the majors in 2024. Amaya, Yan Gomes, Christian Bethancourt and Tomás Nido combined to put the Cubs 24th in offensive WAR and 26th in OPS among catchers, even with Amaya’s strong second half and Bethancourt’s stellar power production in the last two months.

Consistency is a must for the Cubs’ collective lineup, and their catchers aren’t absolved from needing that to be part of their game. Kelly is coming off his best offensive season since 2021 after posting a 104 OPS+ in 60 games with the Detroit Tigers. He visited Marucci Sports before last season to get bat fitted and, without naming specifics, credited the Tigers for helping him implement things into games immediately.

“I look at my career, I’ve had some really good moments and some pretty, pretty dark moments, so I think this last year, it was really just trying some different things, putting myself out there, being vulnerable, and trying some things,” Kelly said. “Trusting those guys really helped me learn a lot about myself and kind of get back to what I used to do a couple years ago. But a lot of it’s just little things that can add up and put together.” Kelly’s appeal to the Cubs went beyond the uptick in his offensive numbers last year. The Cubs have built defense up the middle with Gold Glove Award winners Dansby Swanson and Nico Hoerner an elite double-play unit and Pete Crow-Armstrong covering center field. Kelly’s defensive work is a key piece to his value.

He throws well, which I think is really important in today’s game with a lot of base stealing, and so I think we prioritized just getting a really good player,” president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said. “But I do think that the defensive part was something that we talked about extensively. And, again, I think throwing is a really important aspect of baseball in 2025 and I think in our division in particular, we have some athletic teams that run in our division, so making sure we don’t lose sight of that was important. Carson certainly checks those boxes.”

The Cubs roster remains an unfinished product. They still need more pitching, ideally another starter and adding a proven arm or two to the bullpen. The Cubs will know within the next 2 1/2 weeks whether Japanese right-hander Roki Sasaki picks them as the 23-year-old phenom’s major-league organization. They also could use a veteran power bat off the bench, though they addressed the need for versatility in the infield when they traded for the Miami Marlins’ Vidal Bruján.

“Certainly there’s a lot of players out there, and our team is not complete, so we’ll continue to make a lot of moves,” Hoyer said after the Tucker and Kelly additions. “So we’re not done. We have to continue to round out the team to get better for next year, and we’ll work on that for the next couple months.”