3 recent Cubs top prospects who are dangerously close to becoming busts

A big part of the Chicago Cubs' early-season success in 2025 stems from the emergence of former top prospect Pete Crow-Armstrong and, more recently, the contributions of Cade Horton and Matt Shaw.

With several top 100 prospects still waiting for their chance to make their mark at the big-league level, the future looks bright in Wrigleyville. That being said, it hasn't been all sunshine and roses for some of the organization's young players - here are 3 former top prospects who are inching closer to being busts.

Jordan Wicks

A first-round pick out of Kansas State back in 2021, left-hander Jordan Wicks was widely viewed as a near-MLB-ready arm coming out of college. Did he project as an ace? No. But evaluators felt he could settle in nicely to the back half of a big-league rotation sooner rather than later.

That's not what's happened.

Heading into 2024, Baseball Prospectus pegged Wicks as a top-100 talent in the game. But injuries cut his campaign short and, even when on the mound, he wasn't delivering results. He carried an ERA north of 5.00 at Triple-A Iowa in seven starts and in 10 starts and a relief appearance with Chicago,he fared even worse, allowing more than 10 hits per nine to go along with a 5.48 ERA.

He hasn't done much to right the ship so far in 2025, with a 4.91 ERA and 1.606 WHIP at Iowa, which hasn't exactly inspired confidence in him being a potential answer to a short-handed pitching staff at the big-league level. Wicks needs to start showing signs of getting back on track or he risks falling further behind guys like Brandon Birdsell and Jaxon Wiggins.

Ed Howard

This was a pick that few seemed to like even at the time, and the years have only soured fans' feelings toward the Chicagoland native. Howard, the team's first-round pick in 2020, has battled injuries and inconsistency in his professional career and has completely fallen out of MLB Pipeline's organizational top 30 at this point.

At High-A South Bend this year, Howard is punching out in nearly half of his plate appearances, slashing just .143/.268/.171. That showing comes on the heels of a .225/.281/.298 cumulative line between Iowa and South Bend in 2024, so really, it's more of the same for the 23-year-old. At this point, there's no expectation he's going to suddenly turn things around. This seems likely to go down as one of the team's worst draft picks in recent memory.

Caleb Kilian

Acquired in the 2021 Kris Bryant trade, right-hander Caleb Kilian has regularly shown glimpses of sky-high potential, but has failed to live up to that hype at the big-league level.

The former Texas Tech standout has made a handful of appearances with the Cubs over the last three seasons, but has spent much of that time at Triple-A Iowa. Staying healthy has proven to be a problem for him and Chicago actually released him last month, only to re-sign him to a minor-league deal.

Aside from Pete Crow-Armstrong, who came over in the Javier Baez deal at that infamous 2021 trade deadline, none of the players have emerged as impact MLB talents to-date - and that includes Kilian.