Cubs Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Month: May 2024

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We continue to look back at the top performers throughout the Cubs organization by reviewing the top minor league pitchers during the month. 

 

The Cubs had a few minor league pitchers who had strong months in May. In fact, we have an Honorable Mention who had a 0.00 ERA! In addition, the minor leagues are filled with intriguing stories and varying level of "prospect." This list contains four names. There are players who have been a professional for less than a year and there are 30-somethings. 

Get to know more about four Cubs minor league pitchers who pitched well in May. 

Honorable Mention
RHP Nick Dean - Myrtle Beach Pelicans/South Bend Cubs - 3 GS, 0.00 ERA, 0.46 WHIP, 15 2/3 IP, 5 H, 2 BB, 10 K
Dean, a 19th round draft pick out of the University of Maryland in last summer’s amateur draft, did well enough in his first seven appearances (4 GS, 27 IP, 9 BB, 36 K, 2.33 ERA) for the Class A Myrtle Beach Pelicans that he earned a mid-May call up to Class A+ ball to pitch for the South Bend Cubs. He continued his run of solid performances with two starts of five innings each, only giving up three hits in total, to go along with one walk, six strikeouts, and no runs allowed, but sample size is keeping him in the honorable mention section here. His 18.3 percent swinging strike rate was one of the better figures in the league in Class A ball. However, it has fallen to a good but not quite elite 12.3 percent in South Bend, according to Fangraphs, which rates his changeup as a 60 on the 40-80 scouting scale. 

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May’s Top 3 Cubs MiLB Starting Pitchers of the Month

3. RHP Connor Noland - Tennessee Smokies - 5 GS, 2.00 ERA, 0.89 WHIP, 27 IP, 17 H, 7 BB, 24 K
Fun fact about Noland: he started four games at quarterback for the Arkansas Razorbacks in the 2018 football season. Back to his baseball ability, the former Razorback followed up a rocky start to the season with a great month of May. The Southern League, which the Smokies play in, is a pitchers league, but Noland’s 2.00 ERA was still good for seventh among qualified Southern League pitchers, his 0.89 WHIP was good for fourth, and his .179 batting average against was good for fifth. The ninth round draft pick in the 2022 amateur draft succeeds by keeping the ball on the ground, as his 52.8 percent ground ball rate (51 percent in May) so far this season is fifth best in the Southern League, per Fangraphs. 

2. RHP Will Sanders - South Bend Cubs - 5 GS, 1.74 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 20 2/3 IP, 11 H, 9 BB, 19 K
At age 22, the former fourth round draft pick in last year’s draft is likely a bit old for the Class A+ Midwest League, but if his May results are any indication, he might not be around much longer. After a brutal start to the season, Sanders cut his walk rate about in half and held opposing hitters to just a .541 OPS in the month of May. He’ll have to work on continuing to trim the high walk rate, but it’s a good sign that he still managed to strike out 26 hitters in 24 ⅔ innings (this is if you include a long relief stint out of the bullpen on May 31, which wasn’t included above because it wasn’t a start) in May while clearly working on improving his control. 

1. RHP Kyle McGowin - Tennessee Smokies - 4 GS, 1.93 ERA, 0.73 WHIP, 23 1/3 IP, 13 H, 4 BB, 26 K
If McGowin’s name sounds particularly familiar, well, that is because he does have major league experience! But not for the Cubs. McGowin made 48 appearances for the Washington Nationals from 2018 to 2021, including two appearances against the Cubs. All of that is to say that the veteran right-hander is not a prospect. The Cubs signed him out of an independent league earlier this month. With that said, his performance has been too good not to award him with the Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Month here. Besides: pitching depth is pitching depth. 

Of  the 69 Southern League pitchers with at least 20 innings pitched, McGowin’s 1.93 ERA is ninth. His 29.9 percent strikeout rate is 11th. His 4.6 percent walk rate is eighth. And his 1.72 FIP leads the league. He isn’t walking guys, he’s striking guys out, and he is preventing runs at an elite level. We can’t be sure if it will continue, but for the month of May, he certainly looked like a guy that was way too good for AA. 

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