Man, this Ben Brown storyline began with so much hope and promise. He was coming back from a rare neck injury and there were still some question marks regarding his readiness for the start of the 2025 season. He did return and the Chicago Cubs were confident enough in his ability that Brown was in the starting rotation to begin the year. However, heading into the postseason Brown is on the outside, looking in and unfortunately he's one of the biggest Cubs disappointments of 2025.
Brown was optioned back to Triple-A Iowa ahead of their series opener against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The right-handed pitcher was called up after the All-Star break and was immediately crushed in an outing against the Kansas City Royals. What's really annoying are the times that Brown actually pitched well, including three straight appearances where he gave up a total of three runs in 14 innings, while striking out nine and walking none.
Yet, Brown just could not settle into a role and fizzled out in the bullpen, posting a 5.33 ERA over his last 27 innings. Overall in 2025, Brown posted a 5.92 ERA in 106.1 innings. Sure, he had some brutal luck, but he was also allowing a lot of hard contact, couldn't escape huge blowups and ultimately became a side project as Craig Counsell was trying to figure out how to map his postseason pitching staff.
Another guy who I just can't figure out is left-handed pitcher Jordan Wicks. Here's a guy who gave the Cubs quality starts down the stretch in 2023 as a rookie, started the third game of the regular season in 2024, but after injuries last year Wicks wasn't trusted much at all to pitch in the majors in 2025. Wicks only has 10.1 innings in three brief MLB stints this year.
And it's not like Wicks has struggled at Triple-A either to give the coaching staff pause. He's recorded a 3.31 ERA with 74 strikeouts in 68 innings of work. Yet, at no point throughout the year has Wicks been given the opportunity to get some starts despite injuries in the rotation.
(Previous Update)
The Chicago Cubs still refuse to trust Ben Brown in the starting rotation despite his recent success following a mid-season demotion to Triple-A. Brown had a rough outing against the Kansas City Royals on July 21, when he allowed six earned runs in four innings, but he's rebounded with two good outings. However, the Cubs are going with Javier Assad against the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday.
It's been a rollercoaster of a 2025 season for Brown, who has looked great at times and flat out awful in others. There have been times that Brown has shut down opponents, but unfortunately the only consistency the 25-year-old has shown this year is his inconsistency on the mound.
Yet, Brown appears to be turning the corner in his last two games as the righty has only given up two earned runs in nine combined innings against the Chicago White Sox and Cincinnati Reds, respectively. The numbers across the board have been fantastic in those two games as Brown has nine strikeouts with no walks and he's only surrendered five hits.
But for now it seems like the team feels more comfortable using Brown as a bulk pitcher/multi-inning reliever moving forward rather than trusting him to start a game and give the club 5-6 quality innings.
(Previous Update)
The Chicago Cubs have called up right-handed pitcher Ben Brown from Triple-A and you bet that he has a big chip on his shoulder after he lost his starting rotation spot earlier this season. Brown won't start in Monday's series opener against the Kansas City Royals, but he's projected to pick up most of the workload as the bulk pitcher after reliever Ryan Brasier "starts" for the Cubs.
Brown was optioned to the minors on June 24, following a brutal start against the St. Louis Cardinals. Brown allowed eight earned runs on nine hits, which included four home runs in five innings. The righty recorded a 6.13 ERA in 16 games prior to his demotion.
Right-handed reliever Ethan Roberts was optioned to Triple-A to make room for Brown on the active roster.
During his time back in the minor leagues, Brown pitched well for the Iowa Cubs. He made two starts at Triple-A and in nine innings Brown struck out five, walked one and gave up a total of one earned run on four hits.
Brown's last appearance was on July 13.
The Cubs have used Brown as the bulk starter once this year and it resulted in Brown's best outing of the year. He pitched six shutout innings against the Cincinnati Reds on May 31, when he struck out nine and only gave up one hit in a 2-0 win by the Cubs.
This is a huge outing for Brown as the Cubs are expected to add pitching before the trade deadline passes. If he can show the Cubs that he can mix in his change up enough to keep batters from zeroing in on his fastball, then Brown could earn more opportunities in the starting rotation in the final two months of the regular season.
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