The Chicago Cubs Have Signed TWO MORE Minor League Pitchers: Connor Schultz and Jackson Tetreault - Bleacher Nation (2024)

Hand up: the Jackson Tetreault signing was actually two weeks ago, and I missed it. I saw it only because of the newer signing, Connor Schultz, but I don’t feel TOO bad about it given the unreal volume of minor league pitching signings this year.

Do you remember how this intro goes? Here it is again:

The Chicago Cubs are seriously going off on the minor league pitching signings here after the start of the season. Sure, you sometimes see one, but this is entirely different (and I suspect it’s because of the new stateside org roster limits, so the Cubs are smartly filling in new guys when they get a roster chance (as other guys get hurt)).

See Also

How Clarksville's Blaine McIntosh went from NY Mets to Savannah Bananas' new baseball teamThis 5-foot-6 prospect is slugging his way up the Mets' ranksMets rally in ninth to beat Phillies 6-5 and split London Series, getting game-ending double playMets hit 3 homers and Tyrone Taylor gets 4 hits in 10-4 win over sloppy Marlins

So, in the last couple weeks, the Cubs have signed big leaguer depth typesJulio TeheranandDan Straily, international pitcherDaniel Missaki, pitching prospect typesNico ZeglinandMitchell Tyranski, and now they’vealso signedTriple-A/MLB border guy Jake Wong. (UPDATE: And also Carlo Reyes and Aaron Perry!) (UPDATE: And also Kyle McGowin!) (UPDATE: And also Dalton Moats!) (UPDATE: And also Trey Supak!)

So that group of ELEVEN in-season minor league pitching signings for the Cubs is now up to THIRTEEN. I mean, in years past, five or six would be a lot. This is truly something else, and is clearly the Cubs taking an aggressive approach to trying to find surprise contributors/development opportunities at a time when org-wide roster limits leave a lot of potentially talented players without affiliated jobs. The Cubs think they can do more with these types than other organizations could.

The two new guys are righty Connor Schultz and righty Jackson Tetreault.

Schultz, 25, is getting his first shot in affiliated ball after pitching the last three years in the independent Pioneer League for the Missoula PaddleHeads (before that he pitched at Butler and Iowa). The results have been mixed, but he was an All-Star last year (finishing second in pitcher-of-the-year voting), and he does have good K/BB numbers. A quote from his manager, Michael Schlact, in 406 MT Sports:

‘Schultz has four pitches and throws his fastball in the low- to mid-90s. A cerebral competitor who uses analytics, Schultz should benefit from the Cubs’ coaching staff.

“It sounds like they love his ability to go deep into the game, so I assume they’ll use him as a starter,” Schlact said. “They’ve been good at developing guys that don’t have 100 mph stuff. It’s going to be exciting.”‘

And a great video from the PaddleHeads and Schultz:

As for Tetreault, the 28-year-old is more of a reclamation type, having been a 7th round draft pick of the Washington Nationals in 2017, worked his way up through the system, and hitting minor league free agency after the 2023 season. Tetreault actually briefly pitched in the bigs for the Nationals in 2022, before a fractured scapula ended his season, and seems to have suffered some additional injury (or setback?) early in the rehab process in 2023, which also ended his season.

So, then, this is a true comeback-from-long-term-injury(ies) situation, and the Cubs will see what they can coax out of him. Tetreault has already made a few dominant appearances with the Arizona Complex League Cubs, though we won’t really know much about where he is until he pitches in the upper levels of the minors. He only just turned 28, so dreaming on a comeback and further development is not unrealistic. From my reading, he was never a top prospect in the Nationals’ system, but was generally considered a true future big league pitcher, albeit more in a depth-type role.

written by

Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here.Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.