Toyota Road Report: Cubs Travel West to Cedar Rapids

Tomorrow morning the South Bend Cubs will head out for their second to last road series of the year. Nick Lovullo’s side will travel five hours west to Rise 2 Greatness Field to take on the reigning Midwest League champs: the Cedar Rapids Kernels.

This will mark just the second matchup between these two sides in 2024, and it will in fact be the final series between the two as well.

Brian Dinkelman’s team has made the postseason 10 years in a row and they enter this week in a three-way tie for the final playoff spot in the West Division with just 24 games to play. They’re coming off a massive series vs Peoria in which it took the Kernels winning on Saturday and Sunday just to garner a series split. But that’s exactly what they pulled off, and despite dropping five straight vs Great Lakes the week before, here we are in August again and the Kernels are right in the thick of the playoff conversation.

South Bend is by no means out of it yet, but six games back of three teams tied for first, with Beloit also in front of them means there’s no wiggle room. This is certainly a week to play spoiler, but it’s also an opportunity to rattle off a handful of wins and see how the rest of the cards play out.

Players to watch on Cedar Rapids…

This past week the Cubs took on the second best prospect in the Midwest League per MLB Pipeline’s current rankings. That was TinCaps catcher Ethan Salas who ranks No. 5 in all of Minor League Baseball. Well this week they take on the top prospect in the league, the man slotted right ahead of Fort Wayne’s 19-year-old catcher, Walker Jenkins. He’s said to be the best high school hitter from the state of North Carolina since Josh Hamilton was selected first overall in 1999. Jenkins went fifth overall last year out of high school and signed for $7.14 million. He plays center and has a big 6’3 frame but is a plus runner. Jenkins is a five-tool kid who turned 19 this year and made it up to a full season affiliate last year as an 18-year-old. In his first year he got into 26 games total between rookie ball and Low-A. The dude hit .362 with a .988 OPS. This year didn’t start as planned, with the young outfielder beginning the year on the Injured list before starting a rehab in late May. By June 4 he was back in Low-A and on July 29 the Twins promoted him from the Mighty Mussels to the Kernels. In 33 games in Low-A this year he hit .273 but popped with a .404 OBP and 28 walks to just 17 strikeouts. Now he’ll taste High-A to end the season and enters this series with 10 Midwest League games under his belt.

Another guy to watch is cleanup hitter Rubel Cespedes. In his fifth season of pro ball now, Cespedes is really having a career year. He’s currently got career highs in OPS (.794), SLG (.441), OBP (.353), and even stolen bases (5). His 11 homers are just two shy of his high from a year ago and by the end of the week he’ll most likely surpass his hit total from last year, in 20+ fewer games. To start the year Cespedes hit an incredible .373 in April while driving in 22 runs and hitting four homers. He’s been consistantly one of the best hitters in the league in all of 2024. Meanwhile back in May against the Cubs he had multiple hits four times in their six-game series, while also walking four times, homering, and driving in 11 for the week. In his first game against the Cubs he picked up 6 RBIs. Needless to say Cespedes may get a little juice from getting to see the Cubs for the first time in three months. He’s currently fourth in the Midwest League in batting average (.285), tied for third in RBIs (61), ninth in SLG (.441), eighth in hits (95), and tied for seventh in total bases (147).

Players to watch on South Bend…

This past week was the best of the season for the Cubs rotation, so we simply have to put someone here to lead things off and who better than Chicago’s No. 19 prospect Jaxon Wiggins. The young righty from the University of Arkansas was electric on Saturday. He only allowed one run in his prior start at Wisconsin but this past weekend had to feel like a huge step forward. Wiggins dealt five no-hit innings vs Fort Wayne and struck out five. After retiring the first seven batters, he faced a whole lot of adversity in the third. After losing the strike zone and walking the bases loaded, he responded by inducing an inning-ending double play. The next two innings were a breeze en route to Wiggins notching his first professional win.

Meanwhile on the other side of the things the Cubs got a shot in the arm last week from two new fresh faces. Edgar Alvarez was sent to South Bend to make his pro debut on Tuesday and picked up multiple hits. By the end of the series he’d tallied eight hits and extended his on-base to six games to start off his career. The Cubs eighth round pick from Nicholls State hit over .400 this past spring, he’s a huge presence at first base and welcome addition to the middle of the order in South Bend. A day after Alvarez arrived, Andy Garriola officialy arrived following his promotion from Myrtle Beach. Garriola at the time of his promotion led the Carolina League with 18 homers, while also topping the league in slugging and runs batted in. Fittingly his first at-bat as a South Bend Cub he smoked an RBI single into center. Garriola holds the program record for homers at Old dominion (49) and is second all-time for the Monarchs with 214 RBIs. These two guys make the Cubs lineup deeper, more powerful, and a force to be reckoned with down the stretch.

Schedule and Probables (Cubs pitcher listed 2nd)…

Tuesday, August 13 - 7:35 ET: RHP Darren Bowen vs RHP Grant Kipp

Wednesday, August 14 - 7:35 ET: RHP Ricky Castro vs LHP Drew Gray

Thursday, August 15 - 7:35 ET: TBA vs. RHP Will Sanders

Friday, August 16 - 7:35 ET: RHP Ty Langenberg vs RHP Nick Dean

Saturday, August 17 - 7:25 ET: LHP Connor Prielipp vs RHP Jaxon Wiggins

Sunday, August 18 - 2:05 ET: RHP Jeremy Lee vs. RHP Erian Rodriguez