Next steps for Jordan Wicks as he looks to return to the Cubs

After he cracked the Opening Day roster coming out of spring training, there was certainly reason to hope Jordan Wicks would establish himself as a productive member of the Chicago Cubs‘ rotation in 2024.

He debuted at the end of last August and proved to be effective in his first taste of the big leagues. He began with an eye-opening, nine-strikeout performance in Pittsburgh and posted a 3.00 ERA through his first six career starts. A rough outing in Milwaukee in start No. 7 that saw Wicks give up six earned runs in 1 2/3 innings was a sour end to his season — though he was able to get some insight from the other dugout from then-Brewers manager and current Cubs skipper Craig Counsell during spring camp — but it was nonetheless a strong showing that helped earn him that rotation spot heading into this season.

Unfortunately, this year just hasn’t gone the way anyone would’ve hoped for him.

Thus far, he’s pitched in as many games (and started one fewer) than he did in 2023. He got just five starts into his season until he was scratched from his scheduled outing on April 28. He hit the 15-day injured list with a left forearm strain.

Wicks missed nearly six weeks with the injury before being activated on June 7, pitching out of the bullpen the next day for the first time (even going back to his years at Kansas State). He then took the ball for his sixth start of the season on June 14, but he left the game after only 1 2/3 innings. He was then diagnosed with a right oblique strain and went right back on the IL.

“This is the first time I’ve had this in my career,” Wicks said of injury issues Sunday morning, after he stopped by Wrigley Field to throw a “25-ish”-pitch bullpen. “I’ve been incredibly blessed up until this point, injury-wise. For me, it was just kind of taking it one day at a time. It was tough because I really wanted to be out there, but for me it was about just doing what I can each and every day to get back to where I eventually want to be.”

With 37 games remaining on the Cubs’ regular season schedule, there’s still some time left for Wicks to return to the ballclub.

A date hasn’t been set, but he has now made two minor league rehab starts before throwing that bullpen in front of the Cubs’ coaching staff Sunday. The results don’t seem great on the surface, but right now, the focus is on him making his starts and coming out healthy. Counsell did say that Wicks has a minimum of two rehab starts left before he could be ready to return, and as they get closer to making a decision, his results will start to get factored in more.

“He needs to pitch,” Counsell said. “He’s admittedly a little rusty, so he needs to get back on the mound, kind of get in the routine, bullpens, pitching, and then we’ll see where we’re at.”

For now, his health is most important, along with continuing to get back into game shape and cleaning some things up to get sharper on the mound.

As far as what the next steps are, he’s just focused on making his start for Triple-A Iowa on Tuesday and then moving onto whatever is next.

“I came in, knocked out my bullpen [Sunday], and then we’ll have the Tuesday outing and then go from there,” he said. “Kind of what this has taught me, too, is having the appreciation for where your feet are. Not looking too far ahead, and just doing everything you can today to put yourself in the best position. That’s all you can really do.”

Of course, the goal is to be pitching for the Cubs as soon as possible. With where he’s at in the process, it’s reasonable to expect that he will sometime in the next few weeks, assuming health doesn’t become a concern.

When he came up last season, Wicks joined the rotation of a team holding on closely to a National League wild card spot (which they’d eventually lose by the end of the season). This year, it’d be the opposite scenario. The Cubs entered Monday 61-64, 11 1/2 games back in the NL Central and 5 1/2 games out of the wild card. FanGraphs gave them only a 3.5 percent chance to make the playoffs after Sunday’s loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.

After his next two rehab outings, when Wicks is potentially ready to return, it’s more likely that the Cubs will still be trying to claw their way back up the standings. So it wouldn’t be Wicks helping them hold onto a playoff spot, but instead, helping them get ahold of one again.

Regardless, he’s still just focused on staying healthy and making his way back to the big league team. How soon that’ll come remains to be seen, but it doesn’t seem like he’ll rush through the process this close to the end of it.

“It’s definitely always the goal to be pitching up here and helping us win games,” Wicks said. “The thing right now is to just kind of take it one day at a time and get back into the stuff I was doing before I went down. That’s kind of the focus right now, because a lot of that stuff, I have no control over. So for me, it’s just about [putting] myself in the best position I can to help the ballclub.”