As soon as Cade Horton went down against the Cleveland Guardians and Matthew Boyd was placed on the injured list, fans were pining for the Chicago Cubs to call up their top pitching prospect. The hype around Jaxon Wiggins has been building since last year, and although the right-hander reached Triple-A in 2025, fans shouldn’t be holding their collective breath on his call-up anytime soon.
Wiggins, 24, was taken 68th overall in the 2023 MLB Draft and entered the 2026 season as a consensus top-100 prospect, ranked as high as 58th in MLB Pipeline’s list. He’s the top pitching prospect in the Cubs’ farm system, and given that he’s at Triple-A Iowa, it’s easy to see why fans are clamoring for him to join the big-league team. However, the organization has made it clear that they won’t rush Wiggins to the majors as he continues his development in the minors.
For starters, Wiggins has only thrown a total of 145.2 innings after making his pro debut in 2024. Although Wiggins has put up some incredible strikeout numbers, including a 31.0 K% and 2.19 ERA during his breakout 2025 campaign, he’s also dealt with control issues. The righty walked 36 batters in 78 innings of work between Double-A and Triple-A in 2025.
Through two starts with the Iowa Cubs so far in 2026, Wiggins has struggled to find the strike zone. He’s thrown a total of eight innings, and he’s walked five batters. He was scheduled to start on Friday at Triple-A, but that is no longer the case, according to Iowa Cubs beat reporter Tommy Birch.
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Does that mean the Cubs are actually bringing him up? Again, I wouldn’t bet on it.
Wiggins has plenty of growth to make as a pitcher, and while you may be tempted to compare his timeline with Horton’s, Horton was far more polished as a prospect last year, when the Cubs called him up in May.
Plus, the Cubs’ pitching depth showed this week that it is more than capable of slotting into the rotation when needed.
Colin Rea gave up one run on two hits and two walks in Chicago’s 6-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday. Those five quality innings came after Rea gave up a single run in 3.1 innings of relief last Friday, when he came in for the injured Horton. Although Rea may not be a dominant force in the rotation, he has proven to be a dependable starter for the Cubs. In 2025, Rea made 27 starts and, in 159.1 innings, posted a 3.95 ERA.
Rea had a handful of rough starts, but despite that, he gave the Cubs a lifeline in the rotation that desperately needed help in the second half. From June 28 through the end of the regular season, Rea recorded a 3.56 ERA across 86 innings. Out of his final 16 outings, Rea only surrendered more than three earned runs three times.
The Cubs also called up Javier Assad this week as the righty replaced Boyd in the starting rotation. Assad continues to get the job done as he shut down the Rays for 5.2 innings in Tuesday’s 9-2 win. Assad is as steady as you can get, posting a career 3.37 ERA in 79 games, including a 3.44 ERA in 55 starts.
Boyd is expected to only be out the minimum 15 days on the injured list, while Justin Steele remains on track to return by late May or early June. There’s nothing wrong about getting excited over prospects, but sometimes it’s good to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. It absolutely sucked that Horton got injured and will miss the rest of the season, but that doesn’t mean you panic and call up a guy who just isn’t ready yet, like Wiggins.
It may not be perfect, but the Cubs do have solid depth at this point to cover some injuries.
