Once an untouchable prospect, the right-hander now faces a turbulent Triple-A slump and injury concerns, forcing the Cubs to weigh his future ahead of the trade deadline.
Things can change fast in baseball.
No one knows that more in the Chicago Cubs organization than Jaxon Wiggins.
At this point last year, Wiggins was one of the best up-and-coming pitching prospects in baseball. He was in the midst of a dominating season at Double-A, where he had a 1.93 ERA and 52 strikeouts across 10 starts with the Knoxville Smokies. Those strong numbers earned the young right-hander a promotion to Triple-A in early September.
But things have changed drastically for Wiggins since last year.
The 24-year-old began the 2026 campaign with a strong start on the mound at Triple-A. He threw four innings of one-run ball with six strikeouts against Triple-A Columbus on March 29 and picked up right where he left off last year in his breakout campaign.
Unfortunately, that might have been the only highlight of Wiggins’ 2026 season to date. He then allowed four earned runs with five hits, three walks, and four strikeouts across four innings against Triple-A Louisville on April 4 and landed on the injured list shortly after that outing due to right elbow inflammation.
That elbow issue kept Wiggins out for over two months. The Cubs were extremely cautious with their top pitching prospect, and he didn’t return to the mound until June 15 as part of his rehab assignment.
Although he looked solid in his four rehab assignment starts (one at rookie ball, three at High-A), Wiggins has not looked like the same pitcher at the Triple-A level since being activated off the injured list back on July 10. He has struggled in each of his three starts with the Iowa Cubs.
Wiggins allowed three runs with three walks across 2 ⅔ innings on July 10, gave up five runs with five walks across 2 ⅓ innings on July 17, and allowed three runs with three walks across 2 ⅔ innings in his most recent outing on July 23. In those three outings, he gave up 11 earned runs in 7 ⅔ innings of work.
There really aren’t many positives to take away from Wiggins’ start to the season at Triple-A. He has a 9.19 ERA in five starts with the Iowa Cubs and ranks in the bottom 20% of the league in xwOBA (.396), expected batting average against (.282), expected slugging against (.466), barrel rate (13.3%), walk rate (20%), strike rate (55.2%), zone rate (42.6%), and zone-swing rate (70.5%).
The Cubs have a very important decision to make regarding Wiggins at this year’s trade deadline. He was likely close to untouchable at last year’s trade deadline, but that has certainly changed 365 days later.
