Thursday, June 19

Welcome back to the Cubs Beat newsletter. Jordan Bastian has covered baseball for MLB.com since 2005, including the Cubs since the 2019 season. 

CHICAGO -- The Cubs took a chance on Jaxon Wiggins when the club snagged him in the second round of the 2023 Draft. The righty missed that season with the University of Arkansas due to Tommy John surgery, but Chicago’s evaluators were intrigued by a pitcher described as a “deluxe athlete” at the time.

Two years later, the 23-year-old Wiggins is healthy and pitching like the high-ceiling prospect the Cubs envisioned when they snagged him with the 68th overall selection (a compensatory pick for Willson Contreras exiting via free agency). Wiggins has climbed to Double-A Knoxville, is ranked No. 9 on Pipeline’s Cubs list and looks poised to push for a spot in the Top 100 rankings soon enough.

“He's moved [beyond] what I consider 'out-athleting' the competition,” Cubs director of player development Jason Kanzler said recently. “He's just [going from being] a supreme athlete with big powerful pitches and stuff, to becoming an actual refined professional pitcher. And that's a great combination. That's a great development for him.”

Wiggins is a 6-foot-6 righty who can sit around 96-97 mph with his fastball (touching triple digits) and features a plus breaking ball and changeup. One criticism that has followed the pitcher is his struggles with command, but he has seen a steady improvement with his walk rate since last year (13.9% at High-A in ‘24, 12.4% at High-A in ‘25 and 8.4% at Double-A in ‘25).

“He's not a thrower anymore. He's a pitcher,” Kanzler said. “And with his power stuff, that's very exciting.”

In Wiggins’ latest appearance for Double-A Knoxville on Saturday, he worked 5 2/3 innings to begin a no-hitter for the Smokies -- the team’s first since 2022. The right-hander racked up 20 whiffs, struck out nine and issued three walks with one run allowed.

Through a dozen appearances (11 starts) this season, Wiggins has spun a 1.92 ERA with 70 strikeouts against 23 walks in 56 1/3 innings between High-A South Bend and Double-A. He has allowed 31 hits, including just two home runs. Since being bumped up to Knoxville, Wiggins has a 2.10 ERA with 39 strikeouts and 10 walks in 30 innings (six starts).

“The Cubs needed some arms to step forward and he has,” MLB.com Pipeline expert Jim Callis said.

In the span of only a few minutes on Tuesday night, Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong showed exactly why fans everywhere have been punching his name on this year’s All-Star ballot.

During the eighth inning of the Cubs’ 5-3 win over the rival Brewers, Crow-Armstrong flashed his elite defense and surprising power. By the end of the frame, the fans inside Wrigley Field had gone from chanting, “P-C-A!” to loudly declaring, “M-V-P!”

“My goal every day is to slow down a little bit more,” Crow-Armstrong said. “Those moments are the ones that I really need to slow down in. Those are important to appreciate. That was my first time really getting those kinds of chants. Yeah, I definitely tried soaking it in. That was very cool.”

In the top of the eighth, Crow-Armstrong chased down a line drive from Brice Turang in the left-center gap, using a diving grab to create an out on a ball that had a 5% catch probability. Then in the bottom of the eighth, the center fielder crushed a pitch off the right-field videoboard for the longest (452 projected feet) and hardest-hit (111.5 mph) homer of his career.

That type of performance -- not to mention his elite baserunning -- has made Crow-Armstrong one of the more exciting players in baseball this season. It explains why he was the leading vote-getter among National League outfielders in the first wave of results in Phase 1 of All-Star voting.

Crow-Armstrong and Kyle Tucker of the Cubs were first and second, respectively, in outfield voting for the NL. Cubs catcher Carson Kelly was second at his position (trailing Will Smith of the Dodgers), putting him in position to reach Phase 2 as well. Head to MLB.com/vote to vote up to five times per every 24-hour period in Phase 1 (through 11 a.m. CT on June 26).

Who was the last Cubs outfielder to start an All-Star Game in center field for the National League?

A) Dexter Fowler

B) Andre Dawson

C) Sammy Sosa

D) Kosuke Fukudome

• Cubs, Brewers rained out, set for DH in crucial August stretch. Read more >>

• How Ian Happ played a role in Ryan Pressly’s turnaround. Read more >>

• Shota Imanaga set for Minor League rehab with Triple-A Iowa. Read more >>

• Cubs celebrate Father’s Day with a walk-off win over Pirates. Read more >>

• Pipeline looks at prospects who are pushing for a promotion. Read more >>

“I feel like he defines what being an All-Star is. Both the way that he’s performed statistically, but also the way he engages with fans, the personality he has, the way he’s impacted winning, the moments that he’s had. It’s an All-Star first half if I’ve ever seen one. I’m just excited to see how he continues.” -- Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner, on Crow-Armstrong

D) Kosuke Fukudome

Fukudome got the nod as the NL’s center fielder when he was named to the All-Star team as a rookie during his standout 2008 season. If you answered Fowler for this question, it technically gets an asterisk. Yes, he was voted into the NL’s starting lineup, but the center fielder did not play due to an injury.

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