NEWSLETTER
Brett got into all of this last night, as the transaction wire preceded the official announcements by about 12 hours, so consider this confirmation: Pitching prospect Hayden Wesneski is officially being promoted to the Chicago Cubs! This is very exciting.
We’re going to have a much deeper dive on him later today, but in case you forgot, Wesneski, 24, was the return in the surprising Scott Effross trade and is currently one of the top-10 prospects in the Cubs system (No. 6 to Baseball America). Wesneski currently sports a 3.92 ERA at Triple-A across his two clubs. And he’s looked especially dominant of late, allowing just one earned run over his last three outings (15.0 IP), just four hits, five walks, and 15Ks. His last appearance came in relief, by the way, though it lasted 5.0 innings.
Again, we’ll have much more on him later, but as Brett put it last night: “In short he projects as a big league starting pitcher in the years ahead, albeit more mid-rotation than front. He’s got a plus-plus slider, though. I wonder if he’ll pitch in multi-inning relief the rest of the way, and pick up a spot start or two? He’s thrown 110.1 innings this year across 23 appearances.”
Personally, I’m very excited for Wesneski. I’ve seen the highlights on Twitter, I know about the potential upside. And after a rocky debut for Caleb Kilian earlier this season (which is little more than a bump in the road, I’m sure), it will be nice to have another starting pitching prospect debut to enjoy.
To make room for Wesneski on the active roster, the Cubs sent Justin Steele to the IL with a low back strain that wasn’t supposed to be particularly serious by all accounts at the time. So I don’t love that. Hopefully, they’re just being very cautious and artificially slowing him down. And to make room for Wesneski on the 40-man, the Cubs are designating Kervin Castro for assignment.
