Cubs sign right-hander Jake Wong |
In one of the roughest stretches in terms of the injury bug, Jed Hoyer and Carter Hawkins continue to do their homework to stockpile as much depth as possible. Julio Teheran and Dan Straily were two of the most recent acquisitions and have already been established in the AAA, and Thursday saw the Cubs add another arm in right-hander Jake Wong.
Given what this team has gone through, especially when it comes to the injuries in the starting rotation, you knew more depth was going to be needed as other players move up through the system. Cade Horton was one of those arms, and he is now in AAA, leaving a hole in the middle of the AA rotation. Wong is going to take over there, as he did start for AA Tennessee on Thursday and is expected to remain in the Smokies rotation for the time being. The Cubs organization, especially Tennessee, should be very familiar with Wong, as the 27-year-old was part of the Reds AA team last season. Wong also reached AAA and even appeared in the majors, although it was a rough three-inning outing. Initially a third-round pick by the San Francisco Giants in 2018, Wong was mostly a starting pitcher until last year, when he became more of a swing reliever who could start or relieve. That is essentially what the Cubs could be looking at here, as his transition from starter to reliever caught the Cubs' eye. When you look at his stuff, it's no surprise that he reached the majors last year, but it is a surprise that he struggled so much and hasn't had many looks before that. He has been known to have three average to above-average pitches and was sitting in the 92 MPH range when he was a starter. Once he moved to the bullpen, you saw a slight uptick to around 94 MPH, but he is often in the 92-93 MPH range. Anytime you add arms at this point in the season, they become more of a depth play with the hopes of finding a diamond in the rough. Wong may not be viewed as that right now, but this is a guy who not only has starter experience but can also pitch out of the pen to give the Cubs some much-needed flexibility in the Minor Leagues. While he may not have excellent stuff, he does have average to above-average stuff, which is all you can ask for at this level. Even if his first go around in the Majors, and AAA, for that matter, hasn't gone well, there is still lots of potential for him to become, at worst, a serviceable reliever, which is what this team needs when you look at their relief depth. The Cubs have been known for taking flyers on what they call reclamation projects, and this is no different. The first step is to get Wong into the pitch lab to see if there is something special about his pitches. If they decide he has something special, the next step would be for the Cubs to maximize what they find to unlock his true potential as a player. What better way to do this than by signing him to a Minor League deal, getting him some oone-on-onework with the coaches ,and seeing where his career can go from there.?Wong has started 54 games for his career and pitched in 94 games total. During that time, he went 14-15 with a 4.50 ERA, including 300 strikeouts in 307 innings. That included two strikeouts in two innings on Thursday during his Smokies debut. Jake Wong struck out 6 over 4 2/3 innings in Tuesday’s victory over Everett pic.twitter.com/wpCyyN1jJd
