Chicago Cubs: Patrick Wisdom is playing out of his mind right now

Nearly a decade has passed since the St. Louis Cardinals took Patrick Wisdom in the first round of the MLB Draft. Heading into 2021, he’d only had a cup of coffee at the big league level, appearing in 43 contests – hitting four home runs during that span, splitting time between the Cardinals, Texas Rangers and Chicago Cubs.

This season, though, Wisdom is playing like a first-rounder – and then some. What he’s done simply isn’t sustainable (he’s slugging north of 1.000 on the year), but that doesn’t mean we all can’t enjoy the hell out of it while it lasts.

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Wisdom smacked two more home runs in the Cubs’ win on Sunday, giving him seven in eight starts this year. With the injuries the team has continued to battle, the emergence of players like this have helped Chicago hold on to at least a share of first place in the NL Central.

“He’s been carrying us,” Cubs manager David Ross told MLB.com. “I feel like he’s been the real offensive force for us right now, right? It seems like every time he gets in the box, you feel like he’s going to do something really good to help the team. Real damage.”

Chicago is finally close to getting healthy, although as soon as we got that good news on Sunday, we watched Javier Baez leave the game with a thumb issue. It’s been an endless struggle for Ross’ club, like many others in the league, and division races may very well come down to which teams have guys step up.

Enter Wisdom, who, at age 29, isn’t some starry-eyed prospect at this point. He knows what he needs to do to be successful and has done a great job at staying within himself so far with the Cubs.

Chicago Cubs: Patrick Wisdom has come out of nowhere this season

In his minor league career, Wisdom is a .244/.319/.440 hitter. Suffice to say he’s hardly been considered an offensive juggernaut at any point. With Triple-A Iowa this year, he was batting just .160. When he was called up, I distinctly remember laughing and texting a buddy – “Wow, you feel REALLY good with an infield of Patrick Wisdom, Eric Sogard, Rafael Ortega and P.J. Higgins.”

Joke’s on me, apparently.  At least when it comes to Wisdom. The Murrieta, CA native has managed to not let the moments get too big – something that a lot of guys with minimal big league experience struggle with when called up.

“It’s the same game,” he told ESPN. “There’s another deck on the stadium and more cameras. There’s bigger things but it’s the same game. The more at-bats you get, the more pitches you see, the better you get. I’m thankful for my time in the minor leagues.”

At some point, he’ll cool off. But for the time being, you can bet that Ross is going to keep getting his almost-30-year-old rookie as many plate appearances as possible in hopes of feeding the hottest hand in his lineup right now.