The wild ride for the 2020 undrafted free agent signing continues. Ben Leeper has been called up to Iowa to work out of the bullpen, just over a month into his very first professional season.

The 23-year-old reliever (he turns 24 next week) has been downright dominant so far this year in Double-A Tennessee and both the stats and the eye-test confirm it. Through 14.1 innings on the mound, the righty has accumulated just a 1.26 ERA and a 0.91 WHIP. Opposing batters are mustering a measly .164 batting average while he strikes out 37.3% and walks only 6.8% of the guys that come up to the plate.

He has rode out his two main offerings so far in 2021: a mid-90s fastball with plenty of life and a devastating slider that has been his go-to put away pitch.

The combination of his age and reliever-only profile has allowed Leeper to progress through the system at such a rapid pace. That lends itself well to a somewhat new approach in the Cubs organization where pitchers and their performance is what forces the front office into making promotions instead of the front office deciding upon standardized requirements at each level of the system.

If there is one thing Leeper needs to continue to improve, it’s his batted ball profile. While he is generated plenty of swings-and-misses, when the ball is put in play it comes on the ground just 25.8% of the time. Juiced baseballs or not in Triple-A and the majors, too many fly balls will come back to hurt him at some point.

Regardless of that fact, with Leeper you are looking at a guy that is one of the premier reliever prospects in the Cubs system and a guy that has rapidly put his name on the map and on the radars of both front office folks and casual fans.