Kyle Hendricks and Ben Brown — two players the Cubs acquired 10 trade deadlines apart — are the most interesting pitchers at Triple-A Iowa right now. Hendricks needs no introduction as the last player remaining from the 2016 World Series team, currently working through a minor-league rehab assignment to get back to Wrigley Field and extend his storied career. Brown is the ascending prospect Cubs fans should get to know, perhaps sooner rather than later.
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You also never know with prospects. Christian Villanueva had the higher profile when the Rangers packaged him with Hendricks in the 2012 deal for Ryan Dempster, and that buzzer-beater only went through after Dempster used his no-trade rights to stop the momentum in negotiations with the Braves. The rest is history.
The trade deadline was enough of a consideration that reliever David Robertson, while serving as his own agent, negotiated a $100,000 relocation bonus into the one-year contract he signed with the Cubs after Major League Baseball’s lockout. Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer flipped Robertson to the Phillies last summer for Brown, who was not a big name in the draft (33rd round in 2017) or on the prospect radar while recovering from Tommy John surgery (less than 30 innings pitched between 2019 and 2021).
“We had those consecutive years where we were selling, so he was a guy we’ve kind of had our eye on for a while,” Hoyer said. “He was a pretty obvious target for us. The biggest thing that stood out for us is the makeup. He believes in himself. The way he’s pitching in Iowa, he believes he’s a big-league pitcher. That’s the confidence that’s going to serve him really well.”
Following the farm system, at times, can also feel like a bit of a shell game. Around this time last year, the buzz surrounded Caleb Kilian, the pitching prospect the Cubs acquired in the Kris Bryant trade with the Giants. Kilian made his major-league debut on June 4 and wound up getting three starts that totaled less than 12 innings combined. After Kilian’s first spot start this season (an April 29 loss in Miami), Cubs manager David Ross told reporters: “He’s not ready.”
One sign of the organization’s health is that Cubs officials are not just talking about one pitching prospect. Listed at 6-foot-6, 220 pounds, Brown has what Cubs general manager Carter Hawkins called the “prototypical starting pitcher build,” describing him as an “unbelievably professional, thoughtful player” at the age of 23.
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“There’s a really good foundation for growth there,” Hawkins said.
The Cubs placed Brown — who had been pitching for Philadelphia’s High-A affiliate — at Double-A Tennessee after the trade. He came into the organization with a big four-seam fastball and a sharp curveball that he did not want to tinker with too much. The main idea was to try to expand his arsenal and refine his secondary stuff to give him a better chance of becoming a legitimate major-league starter. He posted a 0.45 ERA in four Double-A starts this season — with 30 strikeouts against six walks in 20 innings — before earning a promotion. In his first two starts with Iowa combined, he gave up one run in 10 2/3 innings. Of the 42 Triple-A hitters he’s faced so far, he’s struck out 17 and walked five.
“It’s kind of a relentless attack,” Cubs pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said. “He’s coming at you.”
Of all the variables in player development, this is a new one that factored into the decision to move Brown to Iowa one month into the season.
“One big thing for us is Double A is using new baseballs or the tackier baseballs,” Hottovy said. “With guys that are going to be part of our depth — and we feel like they can help us — we need to make sure that they’re in Triple A using the balls that they’re going to be using here, and not trying to jump back and forth between Double A and here. I was just really impressed with his demeanor and his personality. He knows who he is. He knows what he can do well. He also knows what he needs to work on. He keeps it very simple.”
Hawkins, the former farm director of a Cleveland system known for developing pitchers, said: “Getting a comfort level (at Iowa) will be helpful to really have a better sense of how close he is to the big leagues. Overall, you couldn’t have asked for a better start to the season for him.”
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If Brown continues on this trajectory, the Cubs might be asking for more than just a good developmental season in Iowa with a focus on 2024 and beyond. The hope is that a fully healthy Hendricks, with improved mechanics and a modest velocity boost, can rediscover what once made him so effective. But getting through a 162-game season requires waves of pitching. Jameson Taillon’s recent stint on the injured list exposed some of the depth issues the Cubs thought they already had covered in spring training. Kilian needs more seasoning in the minors. Adrian Sampson recently underwent knee surgery. Javier Assad is becoming a good swingman. Also remember that Hayden Wesneski is only a rookie and Justin Steele hasn’t completed a wire-to-wire season as a major-league starter yet. Drew Smyly has reached 30 starts just once in his career, and that was with the Rays in 2016. Brown is already on the 40-man roster, just one phone call away from The Show.
“With all the moving parts that you have in the course of a season with a roster, it can’t just be a couple guys,” Hottovy said. “It also means you have to have bullpen guys that can step up and pitch multiple innings and maybe carry more of the workload. When you talk about depth, it’s not like you just have this Rolodex of names you can call up and they’re going to come up and throw seven innings and shut out a team. It’s more about how you can use all the pieces together. It’s a puzzle. You’re trying to juggle all the different things, making sure you give the starters the best chance to be successful but also not kill your bullpen in the process. It’s constantly in flux. We believe in the guys that we have. We believe in the young guys that are coming. We believe in the veteran guys that are rehabbing that are going to contribute.”
(Top photo: Associated Press / Morry Gash)
