4 top pitching prospects that could lead the Cubs to a dominant spring

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The Chicago Cubs are going into Spring Training with a roster that has room for improvement. In fact, Patrick Mooney of The Athletic recently had an article that began with the phrase “The more you listen to the Chicago Cubs in spring training, the more this season sounds like a rebuild.”

Yikes.

While this team wouldn’t qualify as rebuilding if they’d open their pocketbooks and spend a little bit, they will at the very least have some interesting prospects at camp this season.

We’ve recently ranked the top 30 prospects in the system which can be seen below, but here are some of the pitchers that you should be looking out for this February and March in Arizona.

30-21

20-11

10-6

5-1

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Ben Brown RHP

Brown was our number 10 prospect heading into this season and the pitching prospect that every fan wanted on the major league squad after his blisteringly hot start to the 2023 season. In the first four games of the year, he allowed just one run over 20 innings while striking out 30.

He was acquired from the Phillies for David Robertson and he could sneak into conversations for that fifth starter spot in the Opening Day rotation. The best thing that he has going for him is that Javier Assad and Drew Smyly may be better assets coming out of the bullpen than being used in the rotation and his stuff has a significantly higher upside than Hayden Wesneski or Jordan Wicks.

Bailey Horn LHP

We’ve written about Horn a couple of times this off-season and he’s our number 26 prospect in the system. He wasn’t spectacular in 2023 but he was solid in 2022 and he was added to the 40-man roster over the winter to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft.

His spring training will likely be far more important to him than it is to the organization. He’s unlikely to break camp with the Major League club, but as a lefty, you can’t rule it out. However, the thing that he’s playing for is to remain on that 40-man roster and not be a waiver-wire casualty if the Cubs find something more enticing at the end of March.

Luke Little LHP

Little is his last name but it is not what defines him because he is an absolute mammoth of a human being coming out of the bullpen at 6’8 220 pounds. He may be my favorite pitching prospect in the system coming in as our number 14 prospect (even including Cade Horton) because a big lefty that can get strikeouts is a valuable commodity even if it’s in the bullpen.

Last season he pitched 63.2 innings and had a 2.12 ERA with 105 strikeouts and 42 walks. He will get every opportunity to earn a spot in the bullpen to start the year and could work his way into a high-leverage role at the end of games if he can get off to a hot start.

Jordan Wicks LHP

Wicks got a taste of big league action last season and prior to his final blowup start of the year, he had put together a pretty respectable run. He comes into the season as our number nine prospect in the system and is the odds-on favorite to take the fifth spot in the rotation for Opening Day.

That being said, he will have a lot of competition in the form of the aforementioned Ben Brown as well as Hayden Wesneski, Javier Assad, and Drew Smyly. This will be one of the first major decisions that new manager Craig Counsell will have to make and it will be fascinating to see if Wicks (or anyone else for that matter) can make his decision easy with a dominant spring training.

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