It was a wild ride last night for the first round of the 2021 MLB Draft. Alongside Jimmy Nelligan and Greg Zumach, I hosted The Rant Live: MLB Draft Special. It was a three hour long show and to say I’m exhausted still this morning would be an understatement.

About 2.5 hours into the show, the Cubs selected Kansas State left-handed starting pitcher Jordan Wicks with the 21st pick of the first round.

It was pretty shocking that the Cubs took Wicks, not because he was a bit of a reach like Nico Hoerner and Ryan Jensen in past drafts, but because going into the night I didn’t think there was a shot in hell that Wicks would fall all the way to the Cubs’ selection. He is undoubtedly the best lefty in this year’s draft class and has arguably the best changeup to boot.

Physicality

Wicks is listed at 6-3 and 220 pounds but he actually appears shorter when he is on the mound. He uses a very easy delivery that will allow him to be a starter long-term. While there is no extra effort in his delivery, he does use a bit of a closed set position when working out of the stretch, one that reminds me a lot of current Cubs prospect Jack Patterson’s setup. He hides the ball very well behind his back hip which allows the fastball to get up on batters faster than his low-90s fastball would indicate.

Tools

It’s the changeup. Scouts say it is the best changeup in the class which slates it as one of the best all-around offspeed offerings you’ll see. There is plenty of fade and a ridiculous amount of drop on the pitch as it seems to just drop off the table and hit a wall as it reaches home plate, causing batters to be both out in front and way over the top of the ball with their swings. That appearance is backed up by data as the pitch has a lowly 1600 rpm, which is just perfect for a pitch like that. Like I mentioned before, his fastball can reach as high as 94 mph but really sits in the low-90s throughout his starts and has spin rates just shy of 2500 rpm.

Wicks has a true starting pitcher repertoire, featuring both a four- and two-seam fastball to go along with that changeup. He also has a slider that looks good, albeit not great and a curveball that will likely be re-worked into our favorite, a spike curve.

Statistics

Wicks was the workhorse for Kansas State this year and one of the best pitchers to ever throw on that uniform. He set a school record with his 118 strikeouts in 92.1 innings this year and also holds the career record with 230 punchouts. He held a 3.70 ERA and 1.28 WHIP this year to go along with just 2.7 walks per nine innings.

His 2020 year obviously featured a shortened college season and a limited summer season in the Northwoods League, but he was lights out between the two stops. He recorded a 0.35 ERA in 26 innings in the Big 12 and a 0.45 ERA in 20 innings for Rockford.

Takeaway

“Safe” picks have gotten knocked recently by Cubs fans after several drafts that included low-floor college pitchers, but we have to stop looking at this as a negative. The fact that the Cubs were able to snag a guy that fell to them with the skillset that Jordan Wicks has is very impressive.

I think we can expect Wicks won’t get much action in during his 2021 pro campaign because of that workload this year in college. Instead, he will probably head straight to Arizona, get some work in down in the pitch lab, and maybe log a few innings at Myrtle Beach during the September stretch run. My expectation is that he begins the 2022 season with High-A South Bend, but wouldn’t put Double-A past him. He has the potential to be a fast riser through the system and could be knocking on the door to Chicago in early 2024.

Yeesh. Good luck. pic.twitter.com/19RRYGGugR

— Joe Doyle (@JoeDoyleMiLB) February 26, 2021