Minor League Musings

[Donzo]

Nice. Good to know he'll be on the top 30 list tomorrow with Shaw graduating. Horton has to be pretty close to graduating too. It'll be good to see Gallagher's "Bio" when he's on the list. Usually very good info.

From the very little I can tell is his 4 seamer is around 91-95mph. It seems everything he throws has very good movement, which isn't uncommon for good pitching prospects. What is uncommon is his very good control of that movement. That's a skillset that plays very well in the big leagues.

Again, I'm looking forward to see Callis' "Bio" on him.

[Bertz]

8 minutes ago, Donzo said:

Nice. Good to know he'll be on the top 30 list tomorrow with Shaw graduating. Horton has to be pretty close to graduating too. It'll be good to see Gallagher's "Bio" when he's on the list. Usually very good info.

From the very little I can tell is his 4 seamer is around 91-95mph. It seems everything he throws has very good movement, which isn't uncommon for good pitching prospects. What is uncommon is his very good control of that movement. That's a skillset that plays very well in the big leagues.

Again, I'm looking forward to see Callis' "Bio" on him.

Yeah I'm looking forward to getting more info too.  From watching plus the little bit out there it looks like

- Fastball 91-95 like you said.  Plays WAY up because of its movement though

- Big loopy curveball in the low 70s.  Feels like these have fallen out of style so it stood out

- Tight gyro slider in the mid to upper 80's

- Slow change in the upper 70's with a lot of movement

Honestly it's similar to Shota's repertoire but from the other side.  The breaking balls are more north/south than east/west, and I'd be shocked if Gallagher's change grades anywhere close to Shota's split, but superficially there's a lot of overlap.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[We Got The Whole 9]

We have a nice cache of ammo. 

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[muntjack]

Good lord, I hope he doesn't get any MLB innings. His best season he posted a 4.4 K/9.  

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Ethan Flanagan assigned to the ACL Cubs on rehab.

2023 17th rounder out of UCLA who had Tommy John right before he was drafted and has yet to throw a pro pitch.

[Rcal10]

3 hours ago, muntjack said:

Good lord, I hope he doesn't get any MLB innings. His best season he posted a 4.4 K/9.  

Honestly, signing him is a nothing burger. Who cares. They need pitchers in Iowa. 

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Gallagher drops in at 18.

[Donzo]

52 minutes ago, CaliforniaRaisin said:

Gallagher drops in at 18.

Nice... I was guessing 20th, but Callis him ahead of the two international signees.

[Donzo]

On 6/4/2025 at 5:38 PM, Bertz said:

- Big loopy curveball in the low 70s.  Feels like these have fallen out of style so it stood out

- Tight gyro slider in the mid to upper 80's

- Slow change in the upper 70's with a lot of movement.

Good call. It was like Callis read your post.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Jostin Florentino has bee promoted to Myrtle Beach.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

https://www.thecubreporter.com/comment/285115#comment-285115

 

Quote

Consensus Cubs org Top 30 prospect RHSP Brody McCullough has opted for season-ending surgery after a failed attempt to rehab right forearm strain in Mesa. 

 

[CaliforniaRaisin]

BA's weekly prospect hot sheet: https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/ranking-the-20-hottest-mlb-prospects-hot-sheet-6-9-25/

Quote

5. Jaxon Wiggins, RHP, Cubs

Team: Double-A Knoxville (Southern)

Age: 23

Why He’s Here: 0-0, 1.59, 11.1 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 12 SO, 0 HR

The Scoop: Wiggins’ season started in the Midwest League where he dominated over six appearances, pitching to a 1.71 ERA over 26.1 innings. Since he received the promotion to Double-A on May 15, he’s continued to roll. Wiggins made two starts this week, going 6.1 innings on Tuesday and allowing two runs on three hits and a walk while striking out four. On Sunday, he dazzled over five scoreless innings, scattering four hits with no walks and striking out eight. Wiggins moved up in the most recent Cubs Top 30 update and is the organization’s best pitcher not in the majors. (GP)

 

[Bertz]

Rotation planning for next year is going to be fascinating:

- Taillon, Boyd, and barring something unforeseen Shota are all under contract.  All three look good this year, all three are old enough to demand a little side-eye regardless

- Rea's club option looks modestly team friendly

- Javier Assad starts making arb money

- Sanders, Birdsell, and Wicks all have a reasonable likelihood of pitching themselves into deserving a shot over the next 4 months

- Brown and Horton are pitching well enough that you suspect they will both deserve rotation spots.  However given their injury histories giving them both spots out of the gate would be dumb

- Steele and Wiggins both look to have ETA's of ~Memorial Day.  Similar to Brown/Horton, there's Frontline talent there but significant risk

- If the team misses out on Tucker, the obvious pivot is a SP, similar to how NYY's Soto pivot was Fried+Bellinger

Very delicate balance between cashing in chips, keeping enough depth, not wasting "bullets" and roster management/financial considerations. 

[We Got The Whole 9]

In Clemens' chat a few minutes ago

 

Lots of catcher talk, but does Alejandro Kirk not get the respect he deserves because he's short and fat?

 

Ben Clemens

2:39

Yes

 

2:40

Presumably as a long-time reader you'd consider me a Kirk truther, I've certainly always been higher than consensus on him

 

 

Kevin Goldstein told me the 'if you didn't know what Kirk looked like you'd like him much more' thing in the year where we did the trade value list together, and that really opened my e yes

 

2:41

has me liking Moises Ballesteros too!

[craig]

Agree, lot of volume of options.  No bad contracts.  No vets are overwhelming problematic contracts.  Taillon-Boyd-Shota-Brown-Horton+Steele make nice starting 6.  Wiggins impending 7th.  Rea-Assad-Sanders-Birdsell-Wicks give a lot of depth.  Many young guys have lots of options-years left, so should be able to keep guys situated for Iowa yo-yo for a while.  Many young guys who should keep the rotation budget friendly for a while.  It's a pretty good setup.  Lets extend Tucker!  

1. Taillon, Boyd, Shota contract, rotation, modest salary.  Rotation worthy.
2. Brown, Horton.  Young, cheap, ceiling, rotation worthy.   
3. Steele in waiting, rotation worthy.  
4. Wiggins high-ceiling rotation option, lots of cheap years and option years.  
5. Rea, Assad, club-control modest contract depth gy. 
6. Sanders, Birdsell, Wicks cheap deep-depth guys.  Iowa yo-yo guys.  Trade options.  

 

[Rcal10]

15 minutes ago, craig said:

Agree, lot of volume of options.  No bad contracts.  No vets are overwhelming problematic contracts.  Taillon-Boyd-Shota-Brown-Horton+Steele make nice starting 6.  Wiggins impending 7th.  Rea-Assad-Sanders-Birdsell-Wicks give a lot of depth.  Many young guys have lots of options-years left, so should be able to keep guys situated for Iowa yo-yo for a while.  Many young guys who should keep the rotation budget friendly for a while.  It's a pretty good setup.  Lets extend Tucker!  

1. Taillon, Boyd, Shota contract, rotation, modest salary.  Rotation worthy.
2. Brown, Horton.  Young, cheap, ceiling, rotation worthy.   
3. Steele in waiting, rotation worthy.  
4. Wiggins high-ceiling rotation option, lots of cheap years and option years.  
5. Rea, Assad, club-control modest contract depth gy. 
6. Sanders, Birdsell, Wicks cheap deep-depth guys.  Iowa yo-yo guys.  Trade options.  

 

There is absolutely no reason not to sign Tucker. Ricketts is going to have a hard time explaining himself if he doesn’t. Tucker is different than any other FA in the past. He is the Cubs FA to lose. He is here already and presumed to love it here. Ricketts can’t just say we tried but he wanted to play somewhere else. And besides this, they can afford him even with Ricketts stupid guidelines. If he is that hard up for money after signing Tucker he can trade either Happ or Suzuki and let whoever is still here after the trade deadline take a spot in the line up. Between Cassie, Alcantara, Ballesteros and Long one of them can take the spot of the guy the Cubs trade. Personally I don’t feel that is necessary, but if Ricketts thinks he needs to lower the team payroll that would be an option. Maybe if they traded for Alcantara or someone else who came with additional years but cost money, at this deadline, that would be something they can do to offset that pitchers money and Tucker. 

[CubinNY]

One would expect that any trade for a big-ticket player would likely include Wiggins, no?

[CaliforniaRaisin]

JP Wheat to the IL. His last start was on 5/18.

[Jason Ross]

1 hour ago, CubinNY said:

One would expect that any trade for a big-ticket player would likely include Wiggins, no?

I would say quite the opposite. Wiggins is in a tier of his own when it comes to P-prospects for the Cubs. I would expect he's among the least likely to go.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[craig]

28 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

I would say quite the opposite. Wiggins is in a tier of his own when it comes to P-prospects for the Cubs. I would expect he's among the least likely to go.

Agree.  I think he's completely off the table.  

[Jason Ross]

16 minutes ago, craig said:

Agree.  I think he's completely off the table.  

I don't think anyone is entirely off the table prospect wise. Matt just wrote an article saying the Cubs were even considering Matt Shaw trade situations (I would imagine those are very narrow and the return would be crazy good). Wiggins could go! But it'd probably be in a trade that would be very exciting on the return, as well.

But I do expect that if the Cubs go big on a trade, it'll likely mainly centered around their Iowa talent, ultimately.