Spring training is about the process, not the box score — and Jaxon Wiggins showed enough on Thursday to keep the optimism of Chicago Cubs fans intact.
For the first time in his professional career, right-handed pitcher Jaxon Wiggins took the mound for the Chicago Cubs in a spring training game on Thursday.
It was a highly anticipated moment for Cubs fans who have been following camp closely.
Wiggins had a tremendous 2025 season, pitching at three different levels and reaching Triple-A Iowa by the end of the regular season. The 24-year-old posted a 2.19 ERA and pitched his way to becoming the No. 2 prospect in the Cubs organization and the No. 58 prospect in all of baseball. Not bad for a college arm who was a second-round pick in 2023.
Wiggins has a fastball that can touch 101 mph and shows consistent arm-side run. He complements it with a slider in the upper 80s that tops out at 93 and serves as the ultimate swing-and-miss pitch. The stuff is simply off the charts. It’s what makes Wiggins the clear-cut top pitching prospect in the Cubs organization, even if he has never thrown more than 78 innings in a professional season.
Entering 2026, there’s plenty of speculation about whether the 24-year-old will make his debut with the Cubs at some point this season. If you watch the stuff, you think he’s ready. But Chicago has a pretty crowded starting rotation at the moment, and if Wiggins is going to get an opportunity, he’ll have to earn it and force the issue.
He did not do that in his spring training debut on Thursday.
The outing started with back-to-back doubles by Zach Neto and Mike Trout, pushing a run across and leaving a runner in scoring position just two batters in. Wiggins collected strikeouts of Yoan Moncada and Jose Siri as he worked his way out of the bottom of the fourth.
The next inning brought more trouble. Travis d’Arnaud and Trey Mancini both singled, a triple by Gustavo Campero followed, and a single by Kyren Paris chased him from the ballgame while leaving runners on base.
An ensuing double by Chris Taylor officially erased Chicago’s lead and made it 5-4 in favor of the Angels.
The Cubs lost by that final score, and Wiggins was tagged with the loss in his spring debut.
He made it through just 1.1 innings, allowing six hits and five earned runs while striking out three. That 33.75 spring ERA is enough to make anyone do a double take, and it’s certainly not what Cubs fans had in mind when they pictured the organization’s top pitching prospect getting a taste of big league hitters.
But I wouldn’t be concerned in the slightest about Wiggins moving forward. Thursday proved that he still has a long way to go — but we already knew that.
For a spring debut, I was far more focused on how the stuff looked — the velocity, the pitch shapes, the tunneling. And despite the poor results, the stuff was exactly as advertised for the 6-foot-6 right-hander.
For starters, Wiggins showed pretty good control, which has been an issue that has plagued him throughout his minor league career. He did not issue a walk and threw 80% strikes on Thursday. That’s a plus.
And the shapes of the pitches are simply filthy. The fastball averaged 97.4 mph with 18 inches of induced vertical break and 11 inches of horizontal movement. He used it 70% of the time — and maybe that’s part of the problem — but that pitch profile on its own is incredible. According to the Stuff+ metric, it graded out at 116, or 16% above league average.
Beyond that, Wiggins showed good separation with his changeup and 12 inches of arm-side fade. He also featured a true downer curveball that had 15 inches of induced vertical break moving in the opposite direction of his fastball. The stuff was dancing, and if it’s commanded more consistently, it will be nearly unhittable.
So while Wiggins kept the ball in the zone better and avoided walks, he’ll need to execute within the strike zone more effectively moving forward. I’d also like to see him mix in his off-speed pitches more frequently to keep hitters off balance.
That being said, I didn’t see anything in Wiggins’ outing that leaves me concerned. He’s still the pitcher Cubs fans think he is. And he’s got everything you can’t teach.
There’s no need to overreact. Once the Cubs harness some of this stuff and figure out an approach that works for Wiggins, he’ll be able to overmatch opposing hitters.
His ceiling is still that of an MLB ace.