I would be hard-pressed to name another starting pitcher in the Cubs system that I enjoy watching pitch more than Cam Sanders. Ever since he first appeared in Eugene in 2018, I’ve been a fan, even though it took a while for him to find some success. What I like most about watching Sanders pitch is that he barely looks like he’s doing anything. The ball just comes out of his hand so easy that he looks like he is just in the backyard playing catch with some nasty, nasty stuff.
For Sanders, 2021 was quite the year. After a sensational second-half at South Bend in 2019, Sanders basically skipped High Class A and went straight to Double-A this year. He had his moments where he looked dominant, and he had his moments where he struggled. Come November 19, the Cubs are going to have to make a decision whether to add him to the 40-man roster this winter or risk losing him in the Rule 5 Draft.
What Sanders has that other teams covet are basically four pitches that he can throw for strikes and all four could be quality major league pitches. He has a fastball that usually sits around 95 and sometimes he can get it up to 97 or 98. He has a beautiful change up in South Bend that has some nice arm side run down and into right-handed hitters and away from lefties. He also has a classic 12-to-6 combo curve and this year he added a slider to his repertoire.
Sometimes you don’t see your players’ development in the stats. With pitchers it tends to be when they begin to master pitches via a series of small adjustments.
Sanders began the 2021 season by going five innings with seven Ks and no hits. That’s a pretty good season debut. For the month of May, he had a 3.06 ERA and I thought he was well on his way to Triple-A if he continued.
Unfortunately, Sanders hit a bump in the road. He had some control issues as well as some command problems and he tended to be burned by what we refer to as the big inning. He could start a game, be rolling right along, and then gave up five runs and his night was over after three innings. If his pitches flattened out, and his fastball didn’t have any movement to it, he got lit up like a Christmas tree on the Fourth of July. For June, his ERA was over seven and in July it was a tad over six. He was still missing bats and still getting in work, it was just not clicking for him two times through the order.
Cam finally righted the ship as he had an ERA close to 4.00 in August, just before most of Tennessee’s season was shut down due to Covid in September.
Heading into this off-season, Sanders could be a valuable piece moving forward. He has electric stuff, there’s no question about that.
The issue is his command and control on a daily basis. I have suggested before that maybe he might be better suited to convert to a reliever for a while because that might actually get him to the majors a bit faster. His stuff would definitely tick up well into the upper 90s. If all he had to do was just come in and throw straight gas or maybe an occasional slider or curve for just one inning, he could be a very potent reliever.
Another organization might see the same thing and take a chance on Cam as they could hide him in the bullpen and he could throw one or two innings and then work on getting him to control and command his pitches more. Eventually, he could ce a starter at the MLB level.
The Cubs may see that option, too. The issue is whether the Cubs are fully invested at this point in helping Cam figure out his issues. He’s not that far off in terms of being a major league pitcher. The stuff is there now. If he could put it where he wanted, he’d be in the majors pretty quickly. Unfortunately, he has not reached that point.
The next couple weeks are going to be important for his career as a Cub. Even though the winter meetings in December were canceled, the Cubs still have to make the 40-man choice by the 19th. It’s going to be a tough call. Right now, I would have to say the Cubs are undecided aside from Nelson Velazquez. But I don’t think they’re totally down on Cam. They might not think that other teams will be willing to take the risk and select him.
That could backfire.
Other teams have already noticed his special talents.
Cubs Central 
I don’t think he should make the 40, would love to see him get an opportunity in the Rule 5 tbh
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[…] a really long-shot, Cam Sanders would be one name, Andy Weber and Danis Correa would be two others. I could definitely see another organization taking Cam and slowly developing him as a reliever. And even longer dark horse would be Riley Thompson, who missed all of 2021. He might be able to be […]
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