{"id":66489,"date":"2024-02-09T08:00:28","date_gmt":"2024-02-09T13:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=66489"},"modified":"2024-02-08T21:45:22","modified_gmt":"2024-02-09T02:45:22","slug":"cubs-jordan-wicks-lefty-profile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/02\/09\/cubs-jordan-wicks-lefty-profile\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubs Prospect Profile: Will Wicks Be the Next Great Cubs Lefty?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Jed Hoyer\u2019s second draft as the man in charge of the Chicago Cubs front office, he decided to go with a lefty college arm in the first round. After choosing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=howard000edw&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.baseball-reference.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-02-08_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ed Howard<\/a> a year prior, lefty <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wicksjo01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.baseball-reference.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-02-08_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jordan Wicks<\/a> was snagged by the Cubs with the 21st selection in the 2021 draft. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2021\/05\/30\/jordan-wicks-2021-mlb-draft-profile\/\" target=\"_self\">Wicks<\/a> attended Kansas State University from 2019 to 2021 and put up solid numbers as a Wildcat.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In those three seasons, Wicks posted a 15-6 record in 34 starts. The 6\u20193&#8243; left-hander possessed a 3.24 ERA and a 1.246 WHIP in just over 200 innings tossed. Despite having the 2020 season shortened due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Wicks turned heads as a sophomore. The Conway, AK native went 3-0 in four starts across 26 innings pitched. He also had 26 strikeouts, an outstanding 0.35 ERA, and a 0.654 WHIP in this short span. Because of his arsenal and collegiate success, it\u2019s not surprising Wicks was the second left-hander taken in the entire 2021 draft.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VbBMynIb0hg?si=khQX7dibnE-QlLGm\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>Jordan Wicks: Profiling the Cubs Lefty Prospect<\/h2>\n<h3><b>Keeping the Change\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wicks has a pretty standard set of pitches when sequencing. He possesses a pair of heaters, both sitting in the low 90s. He tops out around 94-95, but the velocity isn\u2019t what stands out with his fastballs. His two-seam fastball has some incredible run to it and makes his sinking four-seamer look much faster coming in than it really is.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The lefty pairs his fastballs with a duo of offspeed deliveries. His slider is a pitch that has come along nicely since his time at Kansas State. Its development has made for a solid second option outside of Wicks\u2019 bread-and-butter offspeed pitch.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was known heading into the 2021 draft that Wicks had the best changeup out of all the prospects available. It sits in the low 80s with an immense amount of fade that has already made big-league hitters look silly. Without this out-pitch for the lefty, there is a decent chance he would not have gone in the first round.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Success All Over the Place\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In his first full season in the Cubs farm system, Wicks didn\u2019t have crazy numbers by any means. However, he kept his ERA under four, which is more than adequate for an arm fresh out of college. He went 4-6 with a 3.80 ERA in 24 starts across two levels in that 2022 campaign. In 94 2\/3 innings tossed, Wicks had a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 4.32.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The 2023 season is where Wicks turned it up a notch and earned his call to the show. He didn\u2019t lose a game across AA Tennessee and AAA Iowa, going 7-0. Wicks had a 3.55 ERA and a 1.172 WHIP in 91 1\/3 innings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Jordan Wicks is the first Cubs starting pitcher since 1901 to record three-straight wins to begin his career. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/HtbgKLbKWF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/HtbgKLbKWF<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Cubs\/status\/1699534124371898876?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">September 6, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wicks got the call to make his major league debut on national television on August 26 against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Despite a rocky beginning, the former first-round pick had a rather impressive debut in the show. He collected the win after recording five innings on the hill. Wicks only allowed one run on two hits and struck out nine in the Cubs 10-6 victory in that Saturday evening tilt. Wicks made six more starts down the stretch for a Cubs team that fell just short of the playoffs. He finished the 2023 season with a 4-1 big league record in seven starts. Wicks registered 34 2\/3 innings and possessed a 4.41 ERA, along with a 1.269 WHIP.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/U6V3ubuV-hU?si=BfdFywZLzSfLHmQW\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Wicks Should Pick Up Where He Left Off <\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s not often you see a young lefty arm come up and have the immediate success that Jordan Wicks had in Chicago late in the 2023 campaign. With the addition of Japanese left-hander <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=imanag000sho&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.baseball-reference.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-02-08_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shota Imanaga <\/a>in free agency, Wicks\u2019 spot in the rotation come Opening Day isn\u2019t a mortal lock. The lefty will likely be one of the five or six that <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/02\/07\/chicago-cubs-starting-rotation\/\" target=\"_self\">make the staff to begin the season<\/a>, but it won\u2019t come as easily as one might have originally thought. However, it doesn\u2019t make a whole lot of sense to send a 24-year-old with early major league success back to AAA. Wicks should accompany the veterans in this rotation, with Spring Training games right around the corner.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Jed Hoyer\u2019s second draft as the man in charge of the Chicago Cubs front office, he decided to go with a lefty college arm in the first round. After choosing Ed Howard a year prior, lefty Jordan Wicks was snagged by the Cubs with the 21st selection in the 2021 draft. Wicks attended Kansas [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5007,"featured_media":66506,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1071],"tags":[3631,5882,231,28268],"class_list":["post-66489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cubs","category-mlb","tag-ed-howard","tag-jordan-wicks","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-shota-imanaga"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5007"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}