The Cubs have spent much of the year searching for pitching help anywhere they can find it, and one name in the system has started to stand out fast: Jace Beck.
That matters in a big way for a club that has been battered by injuries on the major-league side and short on impact arms in the minors. Cade Horton’s Tommy John surgery and Daniel Palencia’s multiple IL stints have only made the big-league problem worse, while the farm has also been thinned by absences such as Jaxon Wiggins’ prolonged elbow injury. Add in years of drafting college hitters, a quiet run in international free agency and too few pitching breakouts, and the organization has been left with a system that leans heavily to the position-player side.
The Cubs did try to address that imbalance in the 2026 draft. Of their 21 picks, 16 were pitchers, including first-rounder Cade Townsend out of Ole Miss.
Fifteen of those arms were college pitchers, a clear sign that the club wanted velocity and spin to take priority under Vice President of Pitching Tyler Zombro. The idea was to bring in more standout tools and, by leaning college-heavy, get results sooner.
That long-term fix will take years to judge. In the short term, the Cubs need help from whoever is already in the building - and Beck has suddenly become one of the most interesting arms they have.
Beck’s road here has been anything but smooth. Drafted out of high school by the Mets in 2019, he barely pitched in rookie ball before the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out the 2020 minor league season.
Injuries later cost him the entire 2024 campaign, leaving his development stop-and-start. That showed last year, when he logged a career-high 45 innings as a 25-year-old in High-A and posted a 5.80 ERA.
Chicago took a shot on him in December with a minor league deal, betting on the upside in his 6-foot-9 frame, 95 mph fastball and career 37.9% strikeout rate. The key move came once the season started: the Cubs gradually shifted him from one-inning relief work into a starting role. The change has paid off in a hurry.
At Double-A Knoxville, Beck put up a 2.87 ERA and 3.21 FIP across 59 2/3 innings, with six starts in that stretch. He also struck out hitters at a 39.7% clip. In June, he was named Southern League Pitcher of the Month after going 2-0 with a 0.47 ERA in five appearances, including three starts.
Since stretching out as a starter, he’s posted a 1.17 ERA with 45 strikeouts over 23.0 innings (five starts).
The hottest arm in the system. One to watch. pic.twitter.com/yTflT9nWFz
- Carson Wolf (@TheWrigleyWire) July 12, 2026
Now Beck is at Triple-A Iowa, where the test gets tougher. His walk rate in Double-A was 11.5%, an improvement even if it still leaves room for concern, and that number could climb against more disciplined hitters at the next level. If he can hold the walks in check and keep the strikeouts from falling off a cliff, the Cubs may have something real on their hands.
That kind of arm would be especially valuable for a team that badly needs high-leverage relief help. It also wouldn’t have to slam the door on a future as a starter if the organization still sees that path as viable.
For now, Beck sits in the same general conversation as Wiggins: the numbers are loud enough to make you pay attention, even if expecting this exact pace to continue would be too much. But with a pitching staff that ranks tenth worst in the majors in ERA and a bullpen that has struggled to finish games lately, the Cubs need to keep pressing every available lever.
Beck has already outperformed expectations. At this point, it wouldn’t be a shock if he ends up pitching meaningful innings for Chicago before the year is out.
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