Chicago Cubs: Five prospects who will play in Chicago this season

Chicago Cubs: Bigger might be better.

It’s always neat when you walk off the bus and your team parades those 6’5″ guys out one after another. Okay, so maybe that’s more intimidating in high school basketball, but it seems as though the Cubs pitching staff is leaning towards exceptionally large human beings of late. Brad Wieck is a monster lefty coming out of the pen at 6’9″, fellow southpaw Kyle Ryan is 6’5″, Rowan Wick is a sturdy 6’3″, and recent Rule 5 swipe Trevor Megill is 6’8″.

Add those guys to a team that already features Jon Lester (6’4″), Yu Darvish (6’5″), and Alec Mills (6’4″) and you’ve got quite the squad strutting off the team bus.

Things aren’t much different down on the farm when you consider the Cubs have Marquez (6’4″) and Colin Rea (6’5″) also adding to the giant quota. You also have another guy the Cubs seemed high on for a while but exposed to the Rule 5 draft this past offseason. Dakota Mekkes, a guy who looked like he might have a shot to join the Cubs at some point during 2019, spent the entire season toiling in Triple-A Iowa where he posted a 5.29 ERA and issuing 34 walks in 49.1 IP.

Now an non-roster invitee, Mekkes will have to take the NRI route to the majors. If he’s able to grab one of those spots, the 6’8″ right-hander could make for an even taller bullpen and pitching room. Relying on deception more than pure velocity, which is a bit strange for someone that large, Mekkes will have to show that his extreme command issues were an aberration last year as well as gaining the trust of the new skipper Ross.

While some of the guys on this list face a bit of a tougher path to Wrigley Field this summer, expect most of them to play a role if the Cubs are contending down the stretch.