In theory, the 2026 Chicago Cubs have PLENTY of starting pitching depth at the moment.
Their front-five (Edward Cabrera, Cade Horton, Matthew Boyd, Jameson Taillon, and Shota Imanaga) are all currently healthy. They’ve got Justin Steele eyeing a mid-season return. They’ve got a top prospect, Jaxon Wiggins, waiting at Triple-A. They’ve got swingmen, Colin Rea and Javier Assad, who’ve succeeded in the very recent past. AND, after all that, they’ve got Jordan Wicks and Ben Brown as optionable options.
Point there being, the Cubs are in a good place to withstand the inevitable pitching injury this spring, especially when it comes from the bottom of that depth … like it has today.
Jordan Wicks Pauses Throwing Program
© Rick Scuteri-Imagn ImagesBrett mentioned Wicks’ injury in the Tyler Austin injury update this morning, but Patrick Mooney adds a little more context and color to the reporting.
Here’s what Mooney reported in a post on X: “Jordan Wicks, a depth pitcher for the Cubs, has paused his throwing program while dealing with left forearm inflammation. Craig Counsell said an MRI showed “no UCL concerns.” The club hopes Wicks’ timeline is “days down, not weeks.”
On the one hand, there’s some good news there: A clean MRI and a timeline rooted in days, not weeks. Plus, as we outlined up top, Wicks is near the bottom of a long list of Cubs starting pitching depth, so this is far from any sort of disaster. On the other hand, this is yet another delay and speedbump for the Cubs 2021 first-rounder, who had such a promising start to his career back in 2023 (3.00 ERA over his first six career starts).
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time injuries have slowed him down. After enjoying an increase in velocity and even more movement on his secondary offerings back in 2024, Wicks hit the IL with a forearm strain after just five starts (the connection between those two was not lost on us). He eventually came back in early June, but went right back on the shelf eight days later with a Grade 2 oblique strain. After that, he was transferred to the 60-day IL, managing a total of just 10 starts in his highly anticipated (by me, at least) sophomore season.
And then last year was a bit of a weird one, with Wicks almost never being called up from Iowa when a need arose in Chicago. He ultimately had a very nice year in Triple-A (3.55 ERA, 3.07 FIP, 26.1 K%, 7.8 BB% over 20 games), but the Cubs just never used him in MLB (8 games, all relief, for just 14.1 IP total).
And, as it turns out, that was a point of contention for the 26-year-old lefty – quotes via Megan Montemurro of The Chicago Tribune.
“’Sometimes, me and the organization don’t really see eye to eye on some things, which is sometimes difficult to deal with, but the people that you work with on a day-to-day basis really make being here special.’
Some of those feelings of frustration stem from what Wicks described to the Tribune as ‘a lot of miscommunication’ early on last season about what his role would be, feeling he had been sprung into the bullpen and that created a tough situation as he had never pitched out of the ’pen before.”
There’s a LOT more context and quotes from Montemurro in her writeup, so be sure to check that out when you have the time.
Summarizing the bottom line, though: Wicks feels like he and the org are in a much better spot this year. He still believes he’s a big league starter, but he is ready, willing, and eager to contribute to the big league Cubs in any capacity, relief or otherwise. So that was the good news until today’s update.
Now, look … I know I’ve been the high-man on Wicks for a while now, but I still see a big league starter in there. Whether or not that’s this season is irrelevant – Wicks won’t be a free agent until 2031 and he has two option years remaining, including this one.
So for now, let’s just hope he gets healthy quickly, stays healthy for a long time, and finds a way to contribute however he can this season, either as extreme depth or more immediately out of the pen. Then, when 2027 comes around and the Cubs lose Jameson Taillon, Shota Imanaga, and Matthew Boyd to free agency, who knows what happens. Cheap, young-ish starting pitching is always going to be valuable, and Wicks can still be that with mid-rotation upside.
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