Cubs Bold Move Paying Off: High-Upside Youngster Proves Worth the Risk in Starting Rotation
The Chicago Cubs are behind the eight ball compared to every team in Major League Baseball.
After traveling to Japan for the Tokyo Series, they returned home with an 0-2 record after being defeated by the Los Angeles Dodgers during that two-game set.
It’s not the end of the world by any means considering there are 160 contests left in the Cubs’ regular season, but that was an early indicator that this team has some flaws they need to work through during the campaign if they want to be playing playoff baseball this year.
However, Chicago also got a better idea of how their roster is going to look going forward.
With an abbreviated spring and two games under their belt, manager Craig Counsell got to see what his group looked like against the defending champions, allowing him to make decisions that puts this team in the best possible position to succeed out of the gate.
One of those was regarding their fifth starter.
Per Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic, the Cubs are going with Ben Brown in that role, giving him the domestic Opening Day rotation nod over veteran Colin Rea.
It’s the right decision.
Rea is a known commodity at this point in his career, sitting with a career ERA of 4.57 across his 94 outings and 76 starts where he struggles to strike out batters with 366 K’s in 446.2 innings of work.
The 34-year-old is serviceable, and he was brought in to be just that in a swingman role.
Brown could be a star.
Taken in the 33rd round of the 2017 draft out of high school by the Philadelphia Phillies, the right-hander worked his way into being considered a top prospect after winning the South Atlantic League Pitcher of the Year in 2022 following his Tommy John surgery in 2019.
2022 was also the season Chicago acquired him, sending David Robertson to the Phillies in a prospect-for-veteran trade deadline deal.
Brown did everything the Cubs asked of him at the Major League level last year, getting called up on March 30 to pitch out of the bullpen before starting a couple games then moving back into a relief role before becoming a starter again.
Who knows what his season might have looked like had he not suffered a strange neck injury.
After getting blown up during his first-ever start in The Show, the right-hander posted a 2.11 ERA in three starts and three relief appearances during the month of April. That was followed up with a 1.16 ERA in three starts and three relief appearances in May.
He has the upside of being a staff ace, and with Javier Assad on the shelf to start the year, it should have always been a no-brainer to give Brown a spot in the rotation.
With Chicago giving him that role, he’ll have an opportunity to hold onto it for the rest of the season.
