{"id":596670,"date":"2026-02-27T19:36:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T19:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/596670\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T19:36:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T19:36:24","slug":"why-jaxon-wiggins-rough-spring-training-debut-shouldnt-concern-cubs-fans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/596670\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Jaxon Wiggins\u2019 Rough Spring Training Debut Shouldn\u2019t Concern Cubs Fans"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the first time in his professional career, right-handed pitcher Jaxon Wiggins<\/a> took the mound for the Chicago Cubs<\/a> in a spring training game on Thursday.<\/p>\n

It was a highly anticipated moment for Cubs fans who have been following camp closely.<\/p>\n

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Wiggins had a tremendous 2025 season, pitching at three different levels and reaching Triple-A Iowa by the end of the regular season. The 24-year-old posted a 2.19 ERA and pitched his way to becoming the No. 2 prospect in the Cubs organization and the No. 58 prospect in all of baseball<\/a>. Not bad for a college arm who was a second-round pick in 2023.<\/p>\n

Wiggins has a fastball that can touch 101 mph<\/a> and shows consistent arm-side run. He complements it with a slider in the upper 80s that tops out at 93 and serves as the ultimate swing-and-miss pitch. The stuff is simply off the charts. It\u2019s what makes Wiggins the clear-cut top pitching prospect in the Cubs organization, even if he has never thrown more than 78 innings in a professional season.<\/p>\n

Entering 2026, there\u2019s plenty of speculation about whether the 24-year-old will make his debut with the Cubs at some point this season. If you watch the stuff, you think he\u2019s ready. But Chicago has a pretty crowded starting rotation at the moment, and if Wiggins is going to get an opportunity, he\u2019ll have to earn it and force the issue.<\/p>\n

He did not do that in his spring training debut on Thursday.<\/p>\n

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The outing started with back-to-back doubles by Zach Neto and Mike Trout<\/a>, pushing a run across and leaving a runner in scoring position just two batters in. Wiggins collected strikeouts of Yoan Moncada and Jose Siri as he worked his way out of the bottom of the fourth.<\/p>\n

The next inning brought more trouble. Travis d\u2019Arnaud and Trey Mancini both singled, a triple by Gustavo Campero followed, and a single by Kyren Paris chased him from the ballgame while leaving runners on base.<\/p>\n

An ensuing double by Chris Taylor officially erased Chicago\u2019s lead and made it 5-4 in favor of the Angels.<\/p>\n

The Cubs lost by that final score, and Wiggins was tagged with the loss in his spring debut.<\/p>\n

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He made it through just 1.1 innings, allowing six hits and five earned runs while striking out three. That 33.75 spring ERA is enough to make anyone do a double take, and it\u2019s certainly not what Cubs fans had in mind when they pictured the organization\u2019s top pitching prospect getting a taste of big league hitters.<\/p>\n

But I wouldn\u2019t be concerned in the slightest about Wiggins moving forward. Thursday proved that he still has a long way to go \u2014 but we already knew that.<\/p>\n

For a spring debut, I was far more focused on how the stuff looked \u2014 the velocity, the pitch shapes, the tunneling. And despite the poor results, the stuff was exactly as advertised for the 6-foot-6 right-hander.<\/p>\n

For starters, Wiggins showed pretty good control, which has been an issue that has plagued him throughout his minor league career. He did not issue a walk and threw 80% strikes on Thursday. That\u2019s a plus.<\/p>\n

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And the shapes of the pitches are simply filthy. The fastball averaged 97.4 mph with 18 inches of induced vertical break and 11 inches of horizontal movement. He used it 70% of the time \u2014 and maybe that\u2019s part of the problem \u2014 but that pitch profile on its own is incredible. According to the Stuff+ metric<\/a>, it graded out at 116, or 16% above league average.<\/p>\n

Beyond that, Wiggins showed good separation with his changeup and 12 inches of arm-side fade. He also featured a true downer curveball that had 15 inches of induced vertical break moving in the opposite direction of his fastball. The stuff was dancing, and if it\u2019s commanded more consistently, it will be nearly unhittable.<\/p>\n

So while Wiggins kept the ball in the zone better and avoided walks, he\u2019ll need to execute within the strike zone more effectively moving forward. I\u2019d also like to see him mix in his off-speed pitches more frequently to keep hitters off balance.<\/p>\n

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That being said, I didn\u2019t see anything in Wiggins\u2019 outing that leaves me concerned. He\u2019s still the pitcher Cubs fans think he is. And he\u2019s got everything you can\u2019t teach.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no need to overreact. Once the Cubs harness some of this stuff and figure out an approach that works for Wiggins, he\u2019ll be able to overmatch opposing hitters.<\/p>\n

His ceiling is still that of an MLB ace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the first time in his professional career, right-handed pitcher Jaxon Wiggins took the mound for the Chicago…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2399],"tags":[5,138,24,4245,161,1337,24392,3921,3766,603,4,879,3511,2052],"class_list":{"0":"post-596670","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-cubs","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-cubs","11":"tag-chicagocubs","12":"tag-cubs","13":"tag-gustavo-campero","14":"tag-jaxon-wiggins","15":"tag-jose-siri","16":"tag-kyren-paris","17":"tag-mike-trout","18":"tag-mlb","19":"tag-trey-mancini","20":"tag-yoan-moncada","21":"tag-zach-neto"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116144281229028746","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596670","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=596670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}