Cubs right-hander Keegan Thompson punched the air and then punched the inside of his glove.
In a game the Cubs would go on to lose 6-2 to the Diamondbacks, Thompson had replaced starter Javier Assad with a runner on third base and one out in the sixth. And he’d just induced a double play to get out of the inning unscathed.
The Cubs’ last couple games have made clear just how much the club has relied on homegrown pitchers this year, and will continue to down the stretch.
“It’s really good for the organization,” Assad said through team interpreter Fredy Quevedo. “It’s really good to see, for sure.”
Despite flashes, Thursday wasn’t their cleanest showing. Assad, who has been a steady presence in the rotation while Marcus Stroman has been injured, was battling his command and giving up hard contact. But he still only allowed three runs in 5 ⅓ innings. Thompson held Arizona at bay for 1 2/3 innings, before giving up a two-run homer in the eighth.
The day before, in the Cubs’ series finale against the Giants on Wednesday, lefty Jordan Wicks took the ball, and fellow rookies Daniel Palencia and Luke Little appeared in relief, combining to hold the Giants to two runs. Little was making his MLB debut, and the other two debuted earlier this year.
Adbert Alzolay, a converted starter, has claimed the Cubs’ closer role. And Justin Steele is in the midst of a Cy Young race. He recorded career highs in innings (eight) and strikeouts (12) in a scoreless performance against the Giants on Monday.
“Watching him go that deep in the game the other day, on a hot day like that,” manager David Ross said, complimenting Steele’s offseason work, “last year, that was a red-face kid that was gassed in the fifth.”
It was a reminder of the developmental strides these young pitchers can continue to make in the majors.
Steele, Assad, Alzolay, Thompson, Wicks and Little all began their professional careers with the Cubs. Palencia broke into the minor-leagues with the A’s but was traded to the Cubs not long after.
In their last championship window, the Cubs faced criticism for the lack of major-league pitching they were developing in their farm system. That reputation persisted until the club overhauled its player development, including its pitching infrastructure, before the 2020 season.
“I think we’ve got different areas that we need to improve,” Ross said. “Do we have some pitchers that have emerged? Absolutely. Do we have velocity in the minor leagues? Absolutely. I don’t think we had a lot of that; a lot other teams do. But there’s other areas that we have to continue to fine tune.”
The organization is still figuring out how to consistently develop control, for one. But a guy like 6-foot-8 Little, who the Cubs drafted in the fourth round of the 2020 MLB Draft, found a balance between velocity and control in the minors before the team called him up Wednesday.
Ross worked as a special assistant to the baseball operations department from 2017-19, so he’s seen an evolution first-hand.
“It would be tough to say we would have been in this position when I was in the front office, for sure,” he said.
After Assad and Thompson on Thursday, rookie Hayden Wesneski entered the game with two outs and runners on first and second.
Wesneski didn’t come up in the Cubs’ system, but the club did acquire him as a minor-leaguer last year in a trade involving a homegrown pitcher — another advantage of a productive pitching infrastructure. The Cubs traded side-armer Scott Effross to the Yankees for a young right-hander who they saw as a future major-league starter.
Wesneski struck out Jordan Lawlar to end the inning. He finished the game, surrendering one run in the ninth inning.