Cubs sign lefty pitching prospect Jack Aldrich |
Although the regular season officially got underway on Thursday for the Chicago Cubs, there is never a bad time to continue searching for talent. Jed Hoyer and Carter Hawkins have continued to do that all offseason, and they will not stop if they feel they have a player they can work with.
The Cubs busy offseason, well now busy free agency period, continued on Thursday as the Cubs and former Kansas City farmhand Jake Aldrich have come to terms on a minor league contract. While the terms of the deal are unknown, and there is a lot to unpack, you have to like the Cubs continuing to be aggressive and trying to stockpile as much depth across the board as possible. The 23-year-old Aldrich is a left-hander, which is something the Cubs organization needs more of on the relief front. Aldrich comes to the Cubs from the Royals organization, where he was a 20th-round pick in 2021. While there is no clear indication as to why they moved on from him in just two years, you have to think a roster crunch had something to do with it. In any instance, the Cubs saw his name on the open market and wasted little time pouncing on him as they must feel they can make something work with him. Aldrich split time between the Royals Low-A and High-A sites last season and saw plenty of action across the board. For the season, he threw 56 1/3 innings, and all of them came in relief which leads you to believe that is where he will fit in the Cubs system. Over those innings, Aldrich was relatively strong, posting a 4.15 ERA while totaling 48 punchouts. He also demonstrated good command as he walked just 18 batters over that same time frame. The 4.15 ERA isn't what you want to see, but he is still a young pitcher whose ERA was heavily inflated due to a handful of rough outings. Take those away, and you have a guy who would have been in the 3.4 range, so there is a ton of potential to be had. The former Tulane product has a long way to go before he garners any attention within the organization, but the Cubs don't just make moves to make moves. When they sign a guy like Aldrich, they do it because they find something they like in a guy and try to run with it to maximize their potential. When you watch him pitch, you immediately notice his calm, relaxed windup that helps him generate some good velocity. After sitting in the 91-93 MPH range in college, Aldrich saw a slight uptick last season and was consistently in the 93-94 MPH range while touching 97 at times. To go with the fastball comes your typical left-handed breaking ball that combines an over-the-top break with a crossfire action. Aldrich also has a changeup that he is working on perfecting and has yet to throw as much as you would like. With this team extremely deep in the relief department, especially in the low-level minor leagues, it is surprising to see them make this move. The only explanation I can come up with is that they saw something in him last season that they liked, and now they want to get him into their pitching lab to see if they can maximize it. Given their success with these signings, I give them the benefit of the doubt in wanting to bring in Aldrich. This is an organization that has thrived off of these flyer deals in recent seasons, and more often than not, they have worked out in the Cubs favor. We’ll have to monitor his progress and see where his trajectory takes him.
