Cubs' 2025 third-rounder Reid running with six-pitch arsenal in Fall League

SURPRISE, Ariz. -- When the Cubs selected right-hander Dominick Reid in the third round of the 2025 Draft out of Abilene Christian, he was largely a two-pitch hurler. Just over a year after that selection, the club's No. 28 prospect is enjoying a spin through the Arizona Fall League while attempting to become a six-pitch hurler.

Four-seamer. Sinker. Cutter. Curveball. Changeup. Sweeper (which Statcast logs as a slider).

It's quite the ambitious arsenal. But early returns show he's passed the test against some of the game's top prospects with flying colors. Reid has allowed just two runs across 12 frames with an AFL-leading 14 strikeouts, including four against Top 100 overall prospects (Sebastian Walcott, Aidan Miller and Ike Irish). 

"He's attacking the zone, he's making his pitches," said Mesa Solar Sox manager Daniel Wasinger, who also managed Reid for one start at the end of the year with High-A South Bend. "He's doing an incredible job with the run game when runners get on. He's just going out there with confidence, throwing strikes, getting outs and that's all you could ask for."

That Wasinger and Reid linked up in the desert and not sooner was due in part to the fact that after a solid 12-start stint with Single-A Myrtle Beach (4.17 ERA, 50 K's in 49 2/3 innings) to begin the year, the righty was shut down with a shoulder impingement. Reid wound up missing nearly three months of game action, valuable lost time for a hurler who was in many ways reinventing himself with the Cubs.

Now more than a year removed from the Draft, Reid has been able to dive headlong into how to mix his arsenal, manipulate pitch shapes, and whether he wanted it or not, how to handle adversity.

For all the work-in-progress nature of the rest of Reid’s arsenal, what he’s always possessed is an elite changeup. A 60-grade cambio, it accounted for 66 of a program record-setting 112 strikeouts his final year at Abilene Christian, leading all D-I pitchers that season. 

"Up to this point with how much data and things like that that we have, guys are gonna know that I want [the changeup] to be my go-to," said Reid. "I've been using this year to kind of figure out the best times to use it. But at the end of the day, it's all faith in my catcher's pitch-calling or my coach, whoever it may be, just trusting it."

Reid averaged an elite 7 feet of extension during his first outing on Oct. 3, a mark that would put him in the 92nd percentile among big league hurlers. He operates with a clean and repeatable delivery, and despite averaging the low 90s with his fastballs, he’s able to get swing-and-miss due to the shortened reaction distance created by his 6-foot-3 frame.

"That's kind of been something that's come natural over the years," said Reid. "Just trying to use my body to its full potential and just trying to work down the mound. Obviously, [getting elite extension] helps with pitches and some velo, things like that. I'm just trying to stay as fluid as I can."

Of course, being closer to the plate doesn’t mean much if the stuff doesn't get hitters out. But a considerable cadre of standout hitting prospects have yet to prove they can square it up with consistency, batting just .171 against the 22-year-old. Reid ran a 46.4 percent whiff rate in his first AFL start, then collected nine more swing-and-misses in his third outing.

If there's a particular point of emphasis, it's the sweeper. Reid has thrown it almost exclusively to right-handed hitters and it has landed in the zone just 16.7 percent of the time in his two outings equipped with Statcast data. But with a cutter that parks around 10 mph harder, batters have had difficulty laying off it, with seven whiffs on 12 swings.

"It's still a work in progress," said Reid. "That's probably been my biggest struggle pitch, so just trying to attack it, man. Keep on throwing it, keep gaining confidence with it and just building on it day by day."

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"The ceiling for a guy like that is the Major Leagues, right? He was drafted in the third round for a reason," said Wasinger. "We believed in him. We believed in that stuff.

"He's a competitor, man. He goes out there, he competes, he wants to be out here. It's just really fun watching him."