Eye-catching performance from long-term rotation option bodes well for the Cubs

Barring a dramatic change, Jordan Wicks is ticketed for Triple-A Iowa to open the season. He's got multiple minor-league options left and the Chicago Cubs need all the roster flexibility they can get with their pitching staff in the early going.

But don't let that take away from what Wicks could mean to this team. After losing much of the 2024 campaign to injury, the former Kansas State standout spent the offseason studying his starts and transforming his body, losing more than 20 pounds before reporting to camp in Arizona.

"I definitely think I have something to prove this spring and this year as a whole,” Wicks told MLB.com. “I felt like last year wasn’t anything close to the production I put in for my whole career before that. I feel like that was the first year people really saw me, and I feel like they didn’t see who I am. For me, I think it’s crucial to get back to who I am this year."

Coming out of college, Wicks was highly regarded for his makeup - a cerebral pitcher who knew how to do just that: pitch. But in his latest Cactus League appearance, a four-inning relief bid behind Shota Imanaga, he looked like much more than a crafty lefty, running his fastball - a pitch that averaged 92.6 MPH last year - into the mid-90s.

The Cubs enter 2025 asking for a lot from the newest member of the rotation in Matthew Boyd. The 34-year-old veteran hasn't made 20 starts or surpassed 100 innings since 2019, but the front office loved what it saw from him after returning from Tommy John surgery - so much so, they gave him a two-year, $29 million deal.

But you can't bank on 30 starts and 150 innings from Boyd. The team's projected fifth starter, Javier Assad, will open the year on the IL - and swingman Colin Rea looks like the likeliest fill-in. But that just serves as a reminder that it takes more than five, or even six or seven, starters to get through 162 in today's game.

Chicago has the likes of Wicks, Ben Brown and Cade Horton waiting in the wings behind a projected rotation of Shota Imanaga, Justin Steele, Jameson Taillon, Boyd and Assad. That depth could play a huge role in the Cubs' bid to dethrone the Brewers atop the NL Central - and Wicks is looking like a guy who could be at the middle of it all.