Chicago Cubs: 5 bold predictions for the regular season

5 bold Cubs regular season predictions: #4 - Jameson Taillon makes his first All-Star team

The Cubs' top pitching addition of the offseason, Jameson Taillon, put together an impressive spring training, pitching 18 1/3 innings across five outings while striking out 23 and walking zero.

The veteran right-hander was a workhorse for the Yankees in 2022 and replicating what he did in New York would go a long way toward solidifying the Cubs' starting rotation. Armed with a new 'sweeper' putaway pitch could help him drive more strikeouts than he has historically and, hopefully, take his game to a new level this year.

In his career, he's never even averaged a strikeout per inning. Despite that, though, he carries a career 3.80 FIP across nearly 800 regular season innings. Limiting hard contact has been the name of his game and, no doubt, he'll look to continue that in a Cubs uniform.

Pair that with the team's lockdown defense up the middle with Nico Hoerner and Dansby Swanson and it's not hard to envision a scenario where the former first-rounder puts together the best season of his career in 2023.