The Cubs will have to face one of baseball's most dominant pitching prospects in his MLB debut this weekend in Seattle.
The news broke on Thursday evening. The Seattle Mariners will be calling up left-handed pitcher Kade Anderson to make his MLB debut this weekend.
Anderson was the third overall pick in the 2025 MLB Draft and has had one of the most dominant minor league seasons of all time after making his professional debut in 2026.
Over 18 starts this season with the Double-A Arkansas Travelers in the Mariners organization, Anderson has a 10-1 record with an astonishing 1.06 ERA. Opponents are batting just .147 against him, with a 0.64 WHIP and 135 strikeouts in those 93.1 innings of work.
For good reason, numbers like that have made Anderson the highest-ranked pitching prospect in baseball. He's the No. 5 overall prospect in the sport, according to MLB Pipeline. The 22-year-old southpaw has four pitches that grade well above average, and he's done a nice job of controlling his arsenal to miss bats in the strike zone.
Anderson is officially becoming one of the more hyped pitching prospects of the last decade, and it would surprise no one if he quickly joined the ranks of Jacob Misiorowski and Paul Skenes as instantly impactful arms and some of the best young starting pitchers in baseball.
Unfortunately for the Chicago Cubs, they're in Seattle this weekend for a date with the Mariners, and they'll be the first team to face Kade Anderson in Major League Baseball. David Peterson is scheduled to get the ball for Chicago on Saturday.
There is, of course, some volatility when it comes to an MLB debut. As great of a pitcher as Anderson appears to be, the nerves of that first game in Major League Baseball and an intimidating lineup like the one the Cubs have may knock Anderson off his game. But it could also be the fuel that helps him be at his best.
The Cubs will have the additional challenge of never having seen Anderson before. He's a complete unknown to all of these Cubs hitters.
It may turn out to be a bit of an unlucky break for the Cubs, who come into the weekend 5.0 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central and desperately trying to make up some ground. Chicago has already been burned by MLB debuts this season, as recently as last weekend when Joshua Baez of the St. Louis Cardinals hit three home runs in his first three big league at-bats.
The Cubs are second in baseball in runs scored this season with 656, but the weekend in Seattle just got exponentially more difficult with Kade Anderson being called up to make his debut.
