Chicago Cubs: Alec Mills’ attempt to be a 2021 rotation piece
The Chicago Cubs have a rotation full of question marks right now. They are currently trying to figure out who it is that is going to be there impacting the depth of the group going into the season. As spring training rolls along, we are starting to see who has the best chance of being in the rotation on Opening Day. Alec Mills is one of those pitchers that is looking to be one of the five men that are considered starters.
Alec Mills has a chance to be one of the starters in the Chicago Cubs organization.
The Chicago Cubs have Kyle Hendricks who is one of the best pitchers in the National League. He is more than likely going to be the Opening Day starter and he deserves it. After him, it is a question mark now that Jon Lester, Jose Quintana, and Yu Darvish are all gone. That is a large chunk of a rotation that made the playoffs one year ago.
It is fair to assume that the Cubs brought back Jake Arrieta to be a starter. Zach Davies came over in the Darvish trade so he is probably going to start as well. After that, Adbert Alzolay and Alec Mills are the likely number four and five. For Mills, he needs to do what made him successful in 2020. He sort of lucked his way into a rotation spot last year and ran with the opportunity.
As realistic as it is to assume that he will be there again, he still has to earn it. In yesterday’s game against the Chicago White Sox, he looked a little bit shaky. Mills threw 3.0 innings and struggled. He gave up three runs on six hits with three walks and only one strikeout. That isn’t the Alec Mills we saw for the most part last year but it is still early. All of those RBIs came to former Cubs prospect, Eloy Jimenez.
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Mills is more than likely going to still be in the rotation but he needs to be better than that against Major League hitters. The White Sox have a lineup that comes at you in waves but there are lots of teams that have that type of firepower and the Cubs will be facing them a lot. There is still plenty of exhibition season yet for the Cubs to make any sort of decisions but that wasn’t the best audition for Mills.