The Cubs may have another bullpen wrinkle taking shape, and this one comes with October in mind.
During Tuesday night’s MiLB Field of Dreams game between the St. Paul Saints and Iowa Cubs, Jaxon Wiggins worked out of the bullpen. That alone is enough to make people around the organization look twice, because it hints at a possible late-season path to Chicago if the Cubs want another arm with relief upside.
Tommy Birch noted the outing on X, writing: “Final line for Jaxon Wiggins: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K. Topped out at 98.1. Got 2 swing and misses.
Interested to see if this is the plan moving forward for him out of the bullpen.”
Whether that becomes the long-term direction for Wiggins at Iowa still isn’t clear, but the role change is hard to miss. If the Cubs are trying to sort out what their bullpen could look like in September, Wiggins suddenly feels like part of the conversation.
That would fit the way Chicago has already thought about him. When Wiggins’ major-league future comes up, the bullpen has always been the likely destination, much like the approach the Cubs used with Cade Horton last season. It would also give the team another way to manage his workload down the stretch.
The question is whether Wiggins is ready to help in any meaningful way. He missed nearly three months because of an elbow injury, and even with that behind him, the results have been rough. Through 23 innings with Iowa this season, including Tuesday’s relief appearance, he owns a 9.39 ERA.
The command has been a problem, too. He has walked more than 20% of the hitters he’s faced this year, and his strikeout rate has slipped from 31.8% last season to 25.6% this season.
That kind of regression explains why Wiggins was never a real candidate for the rotation this year. But if the Cubs are only asking him to cover short bursts out of the bullpen, there’s still a case for his value, especially as a different look for opposing hitters in the postseason.
For now, that’s all this is: a possibility. The door has been cracked open, not kicked all the way in. The returns of Ben Brown and Justin Steele before October would be bonuses, but Wiggins could join that group of bullpen possibilities if the Cubs decide to keep exploring the new look.
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