(670 The Score) As the Cubs continue to evaluate who will fill the No. 5 spot in their rotation, there’s one main question they’ll need to answer.
How do they balance what’s best for 25-year-old right-hander Hayden Wesneski in the short-term and long-term with what’s best for the big league team? Because with all due respect to right-hander Adrian Sampson and right-hander Javier Assad, the other two competing for the final rotation slot, Wesneski is the one who carries the most upside and whom the Cubs have invested the most in.
Wesneski posted a 2.18 ERA and 0.94 WHIP in 33 innings for the Cubs in 2022, when Chicago acquired him from the New York Yankees in exchange for reliever Scott Effross. Wesneski got his spring training going by firing two scoreless innings against the Mariners in Cactus League action Wednesday, when he struck out four.
He could certainly earn the No. 5 spot in the rotation, but the Cubs also might like to limit his workload a bit early on and give him the chance to fine-tune his game by starting the season at Triple-A Iowa. The other option would be to use Wesneski out of the Cubs' bullpen early in the season.
“The answer I want is whichever one helps the Cubs win the most this year and into the future, and that’s kind of the balance we’ll have to think about, is hey, if there’s levers we want to pull that we really only feel like he can pull down at Triple-A, then we’ll send him down there,” Cubs general manager Carter Hawkins said of Wesneski on the Mully & Haugh Show on Monday morning. “But if there’s levers that we can pull up in the big leagues to help us win now and there’s no real opportunity cost, he’s on our team (out of spring training). I think those are the questions that we’re going to be answering. Luckily, we have a lot of depth at starting pitcher right now. Knock on wood, that’s a thing to be scared of saying as a general manager certainly because you always have depth until you don’t, but at the same time, we have a lot of options there, a lot of guys competing and we feel really good about that place.”
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