Ed Howard – Picture by Todd Johnson
Happy Thanksgiving!!! Enjoy this Turkey Day special!
Every season has its own collection of players who, through no fault of her own their own, get injured or struggled to live up to their expectations. Sometimes those expectations are a little overhyped and they can be overwhelming for a prospect. Injuries can also take a mental toll on a prospect but there’s nothing better than a good comeback story. There are several guys who fit that bill heading into next year.
Iowa – Brennen Davis
Being constantly injured has to take a toll on your body, your mental acuity, and just the natural reaction time needed to play at a high-level. For Davis, that’s what we’re sort of seeing. He’s gone from number one prospect to a guy some see as not even belonging on a prospect list. To be quite frank, I thought he might’ve been non-tenured or removed from the 40 man this winter. There are those who still think that Davis can come back in 2024. It is a make it or break it year for him. If he can stay healthy this off-season and come into camp in shape, maybe even be a little slimmed down, that might be the best thing for him. We are just going to have to wait and see how he does. You never know what a prospect is going to do from year to year. That is the fun of surprises and comebacks.
Tennessee – Burl Carraway, Jake Reindl, Dalton Stambaugh
It would be cool to see these three relievers show up and shove to start the year. However, their track record of staying healthy is not so great. For Carraway, this would be a big storyline if he were to come back healthy and be able to throw strikes. For Reindl, he’s battled injuries often since the Cubs drafted him. When healthy, he is dominant reliever and could be a guy that could move quickly. For Stambaugh, a freak accident in the weight room ended his season last year and I have no idea on what to expect when he does return. Even if just one of them comes back and makes it to Iowa next year, that will be a huge success for them and the Cubs.
South Bend – Sam Thoresen, Tyler Schlaffer, and Ed Howard
Out of all the players listed today, these two probably have the best chance of coming back. Thoresen’s labrum injury is something we’ve seen several guys bounce back from. Schlaffer is still pretty young but I am interested in what role he’s going to have next year. Is he going to be starting over relieving? And how many innings are the Cubs going to let him go coming off of Tommy John?
The fact that Ed Howard played at all in 2023 is pretty much a miracle considering how horrific his injury was. Currently, Ed is getting ready to go down to Australia to play winter ball. That will be a good thing. Hopefully, his timing will return along with flexibility in his hip as his body adjusts to playing baseball instead of rehabbing and building strength in his hip and surrounding support system.
Myrtle Beach – Will Frisch, Nazier Mule, JP Wheat, Shane Marshall, and Reggie Preciado
Of the four groupings, this one is most interesting to me because four of them have not pitched outside of instructs. Injuries can take a toll on young players and the fact that the beginning of their careers was delayed for a little bit puts more pressure on them. Once they do begin playing, they might try to make up for lost time. That would not be good.
In addition, you have the complication of Mule being a two-way player who is coming back from Tommy John surgery. That complication has a load of possible impacts for his first year. Is he going to play in the field? Or, will he just be a DH? Is he going to start an inning at a time in Arizona? Or will he be a reliever in Myrtle Beach? Out of all the players in the Cubs system he is the one that I have the most questions about.
I know this is going to sound completely fabricated, but Reggie Preciado is still just 20 years old. When the 2024 season begins he will still be 20 for another month and won’t celebrate his 21st birthday until May. It’s not that he’s still a baby, but he is still extremely young even though it seems like he’s been in the system forever. His tenure seems a lot longer because of his struggles with injuries the past two years. I am still pulling for him to put it all together in his third try to stay healthy at Myrtle Beach.
2023 Draft Picks – Ethan Flanagan, Jaxon Wiggins
If these two guys pitch it all in the first half 2024, that will be a bonus. I’m not expecting much from either of them until the second half of the season. I’d like to think they’re both going to end up starting down the road, And they probably will when they come back. But those starts would just be them acting as an opener rather than a full blown starter. They probably would only throw 30 to 40 pitches for a month. Then they would build up from there. But I am excited to see the curveball for Flanagan and just the nastiness that Wiggins has in all his pitches.
Well, we have had several articles in our 2024 storyline series, we do have one left. Greg Zumach and I will be tackling some of the storylines for the 2024 MLB draft in December. We will see how the draft lottery shakes out and that’s going to answer some questions and create others.
