The Cubs may have something interesting brewing in the Arizona Fall League, and it comes in the form of pitching prospect Dominick Reid.
While Chicago sent multiple prospects to Arizona, including 2026 second-round pick Myles Bailey, Reid has been the name drawing the most attention. The 2025 third-round pick is currently ranked as the No. 28 prospect in the Cubs system, and his early work in the desert has offered a glimpse of why the organization is encouraged by him.
Reid had been putting together a strong stretch before a concerning moment on Tuesday, when Rich Biesterfeld reported that he walked off the mound with the trainer in the second inning. No further details were given about what happened, but it was still an uneasy sight for a pitcher who had been building momentum.
That momentum had been real. Reid was carrying a 3.46 ERA across 13.0 innings in Arizona, with 17 strikeouts and eight walks.
Biesterfeld also noted that Reid made his first AFL start last night, working 4.0 innings, allowing one hit and one run while striking out seven and walking one. He generated a 40%+ whiff rate with four different offerings, which is exactly the kind of encouraging line the Cubs were hoping to see.
What makes Reid especially intriguing is how his profile has expanded over the last few weeks. He had pitch-count limitations early on, but that has changed, and he’s been able to show more of the arsenal that could help him develop into a real piece for the Cubs down the road.
That development matters because Chicago has been searching for pitching help in the system for a while now. The club has had difficulty adding young arms who stick, and the list of names that have run into setbacks includes Cade Horton, Jaxon Wiggins, and Jordan Wicks, among others. Reid gives them a chance at a different outcome.
He is not a finished product, and nobody is pretending otherwise. But the Cubs are in need of pitchers who can grow into either rotation or bullpen roles, and Reid has the kind of stuff that makes him fit the type of pitching mix the organization wants. The hope is that he can keep moving forward, especially with 2026 first-round selection Cade Townsend also part of the group that could help reshape the pitching pipeline.
Position players such as Josiah Hartshorn and Ethan Conrad remain among the strongest names in the system, but Reid has put himself in the conversation as a pitcher who could headline the next wave. For a farm system that needs more arms, that’s a development worth watching closely.
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