You have to be fucking kidding. This year can’t end soon enough for the Chicago Cubs, apparently, because they can’t even escape the Arizona Fall League without a pitcher getting injured. The latest pitching casualty seems to be right-handed starter Dominick Reid, who was looking great in Arizona, making up for lost time after a shoulder injury during the regular season.
Reid got more time in the AFL and pitched well against other rising prospects. In four starts, the right-hander struck out 17 batters over 13 innings. In his first three appearances, Reid posted a 1.50 ERA over 12 innings, striking out hitters at a high rate.
If you’re doing some quick math, you’ll know by now that Reid lasted only one inning in his last outing for the Mesa Solar Sox. He struggled to find the zone, throwing only 18 strikes in 40 pitches, and allowed three runs on three walks and a pair of hits.
However, the most troubling aspect of Reid’s Tuesday start is that he left the game with the team trainer.
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Rich Biesterfeld, a baseball photographer who follows anything Cubs-related in Arizona, was on the scene for Reid’s latest performance and shared the unpleasant update.
Not ideal.
The Cubs selected Reid in the third round of the 2025 MLB Draft out of Abilene Christian University. He didn’t make his pro debut until this year, and he jumped from Low-A to High-A. However, Reid did miss nearly three months of action, shutting down after he was diagnosed with right shoulder impingement.
Reid returned in September, pitching four shutout innings for the South Bend Cubs in his High-A debut. The righty finished his first season in the minors with a 3.86 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, and a 23.7% strikeout rate.
MLB.com wrote about Reid last week, and his six-pitch arsenal certainly stood out: Four-seamer. Sinker. Cutter. Curveball. Changeup. Sweeper (which Statcast logs as a slider).
The right-hander needs more variety in his pitch mix because his fastball sits only at 93-94, and although his arm angle and extension can be deceptive, it isn’t overpowering. Still, Reid has the tools to become an effective pitcher, and he’s been working specifically on the sweeper to make it a weapon against righties.
Via MLB.com.
If there’s a particular point of emphasis, it’s the sweeper. Reid has thrown it almost exclusively to right-handed hitters and it has landed in the zone just 16.7 percent of the time in his two outings equipped with Statcast data. But with a cutter that parks around 10 mph harder, batters have had difficulty laying off it, with seven whiffs on 12 swings.
So yeah, it fucking sucks that yet another promising pitcher in the Cubs organization is now potentially dealing with another injury.
