Brandon Birdsell – Picture by Todd Johnson
Doing the Starting Pitching All-Star team article is a bit more challenging than the hitting side of things. Where the hitters tend to just roll right off the tongue, selecting six starting pitchers is much more intensive mentally. However, when I think back about the fact that it’s just a preseason All-Star team, and I realize I can take gambles, things start to flow much better.
Let’s get to it!
Let me just clarify, a little nugget for the players: to be on this All-Star team, a pitcher is going to have to be in the system for most of the year. That’s going to eliminate Ben Brown and Cade Horton. While those are two big bullets, there are plenty of other names in the system.
Brandon Birdsell is going to be atop my list. He pitched really well last year, especially after May where he had a sub 2.00 ERA in South Bend in the summer before his promotion to Tennessee. He pitched really well for Tennessee in the playoffs and should be back there to start the year. He has a good shot of going to Iowa at some point in the middle of this summer.
Although Michael Arias is a starter now, I not 100% sure that he’s going to stay that way. If the Cubs decide at any point to move him to the bullpen, he’s going to be in Chicago fairly quickly. For now, though, he’s still a starter, and I am excited to see him in that role to start the year.
2024 looks like it could be the return of Luis Devers. After a career high innings workload in 2022, Devers struggled to get going in 2023, but looked to be like an older version of himself at the end of the year. I am hoping that the man with the nasty changeup gets off to a great start and makes this prediction look good.
Drew Gray is fully healthy and will have no restrictions a year after coming off Tommy Jon surgery. I am excited to see him unleashed upon the Midwest League starting in April.
Marino Santy might have the nastiest curve in the system and he might be the most underrated pitcher out there. There was a stretch last year where he was almost unhittable for an entire month, literally. I’m excited to see what he can do at South Bend this year.
Will Sanders is my guy. The Cubs fourth round pick out of South Carolina should dominate just on his pedigree alone in the first half of the year. He is experienced enough to make mincemeat out of the Carolina league. Should he start there then that experience should also carryover to the Midwest League. If he starts at South Bend, he will be just fine!
Honorable Mention: Jaxon Wiggins probably should be on here, but he’s not going to be ready to start the year and the same is true for Brody McCullough. I’m also hoping Kohl Franklin puts it all together this year. I would not be surprised to see Luis Rujano and/or Koen Moreno figure some things out for long stretches this year, depending upon where they begin the year.
