{"id":580488,"date":"2026-02-19T04:57:34","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T04:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/580488\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T04:57:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T04:57:34","slug":"chicago-cubs-jaxon-wiggins-gets-first-taste-of-big-league-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/580488\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Cubs’ Jaxon Wiggins gets first taste of big-league camp"},"content":{"rendered":"

MESA, Ariz. \u2014 Jaxon Wiggins\u2019 first live batting practice of spring training<\/a> provided a great challenge for the Chicago Cubs\u2019 top pitching prospect.<\/p>\n

On a backfield at the Cubs complex Friday, the 24-year-old right-hander faced off against first baseman Michael Busch and center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong. It provided a good gauge of how his four-pitch mix can play against big-league hitters. Wiggins\u2019 stuff generated a couple of awkward swings by the pair of lefties.<\/p>\n

After falling behind Busch in one at-bat, Wiggins, in his first big-league camp, battled back to work a full count before getting Busch to whiff at an offspeed pitch low and out of the zone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose guys are super experienced, and they all have good tools, they know the zone, they know what they\u2019re supposed to do, so going against those guys is really good for anybody,\u201d Wiggins told the Tribune. \u201cIt definitely gives you confidence a little bit, but just try not to think about any of that, just doing what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wiggins, a 2023 second-round draft pick<\/a>, spent most of his offseason in Arizona working out at the Cubs complex. He focused on adding weight, estimating he added roughly 10 pounds of lean muscle to his 6-foot-6 frame, while continuing to hone his repertoire. He considers his changeup the lynchpin to his success and the implementation of a new slider grip at the beginning of last season \u2014 tweaking it to a spiked grip \u2014 gives it more of a bullet movement instead of a sweeper profile.<\/p>\n

Wiggins, though, knows he needs to throw more strikes. He posted 4.1 walks per nine innings between Low A and High A in 2024 and was almost at the same rate last season (4.2 BB\/9) as he went through three minor-league levels. Although the walk rate wasn\u2019t significantly different between seasons, Wiggins was encouraged by his 2025 performance. A 1.93 ERA in 10 starts with Double-A Knoxville, where he struck out 52 in 42 innings, earned him a taste of Iowa in September.<\/p>\n

\"PitcherPitcher Jaxon Wiggins throws in the bullpen area during spring training at Sloan Park on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026, in Mesa, Ariz. (Armando L. Sanchez\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

A shoulder issue sidelined Wiggins for a month last summer, preventing him from pitching in the Futures Game during MLB All-Star weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously it would have been fun to pitch in the Futures Game, I would have loved that a lot,\u201d Wiggins said. \u201cBut it\u2019s just one of those things that I had to take care of and make sure I\u2019m healthy going forward and making sure it doesn\u2019t happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wiggins\u2019 biggest asset to throwing more strikes this year will be more reps. After missing the 2023 season due to Tommy John surgery, he reached Triple-A Iowa at the end of the 2025 season, making three starts and throwing 9 2\/3 innings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s, I think, what will happen with Jaxon,\u201d manager Craig Counsell said. \u201cIf you watch him, he\u2019s throwing very professional appearances in his bullpens and his live (BP), very professional. He absolutely has the ability to do it. But the reps take it because you\u2019re stacking on better pitch shapes, execution, better hitters as you move up. So you\u2019re just stacking all these things up and one of them is better execution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat comes from consistency in your delivery, consistency in your mental process, confidence, maturity, it keeps growing. And I think for Jaxon it\u2019s continuing to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cubs have shown a willingness to give prospects a big-league opportunity when the organization feels their performance forces a promotion. They\u2019ve given Wiggins the same message that National League Rookie of the Year runner-up Cade Horton got last spring: You aren\u2019t on the team to start the season, but what you show will tell us when you\u2019re ready.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuys have freedom when they think that way, like, \u2018I\u2019m just going to go do my work, I\u2019m going to keep doing what I do, and then my time comes, we\u2019ll know,’\u201d pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said to the Tribune. \u201cFor the year he had and where he\u2019s been trending and to be on the radar, he\u2019s definitely in that group of guys we\u2019re going to keep our eye on. But he\u2019s also a guy we don\u2019t feel like we need to rush because we are going to have a lot of those others (among our depth). But I\u2019d love to see him force his way into that conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wiggins isn\u2019t looking too far ahead. He enters the season with 36 career starts in the minors and knows he has more to accomplish.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do have some goals, but nothing like trying to make it (to the majors) this year,\u201d Wiggins said. \u201cYou can\u2019t put a timeline on that. It\u2019s based on your performance, and there\u2019s a lot that goes into your performance and how you prep for that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MESA, Ariz. \u2014 Jaxon Wiggins\u2019 first live batting practice of spring training provided a great challenge for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2399],"tags":[5,5250,138,24,4245,161,24392,4,256,76025,4563,151,3970],"class_list":{"0":"post-580488","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-cubs","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cactus-league","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-cubs","12":"tag-chicagocubs","13":"tag-cubs","14":"tag-jaxon-wiggins","15":"tag-mlb","16":"tag-mlb-baseball","17":"tag-pitching-prospects","18":"tag-sloan-park","19":"tag-spring-training","20":"tag-top-prospects"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116095526763325702","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}