The 2026 Chicago Cubs have a lot of excitement heading into the season with talent all over the diamond. However, great teams have players who come out of nowhere and are impactful throughout the season. Predicting who that player will be is always a fun exercise. Let’s take a closer look at who ESPN believes this will be.
ESPN considers Jaxon Wiggins as the Chicago Cubs’ breakout player for 2026
The Cubs have some exciting young players throughout the depth chart, so there are a lot of potential there. ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel wrote an article predicting the breakout player for each team, and for the Cubs, he selected pitcher Jaxon Wiggins. Below is what he wrote:
“Wiggins has steadily progressed over the past few years, adding more feel and new pitches to his repertoire, and I have him 50-50 to be a starter or reliever. If he can stick as a starter, there’s frontline upside from his plus raw stuff.”
Wiggins is one of the more intriguing pitchers in the Cubs system. He is considered the 10th-ranked prospect in the organization and quickly climbed the ranks. In just two professional season, he would wind up in Triple-A Iowa. Over the course of three levels in 2025, he pitched in 19 games (18 starts) and was 3-4 with a 2.19 ERA and a .161 opposing batting average in 78.0 innings.
Wiggins has four different pitches (fastball, curveball, slider, changeup) and has an elite fastball. With the ability to get swings and misses, the team can expect that to continue in the big leagues. Whether as a spot starter in a loaded Cubs starting pitching staff or slotted as a bullpen arm, Wiggins should be in a position to be a legitimate arm that surprises a lot of people heading into the 2026 season.
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