2023 Cubs player profiles: Codi Heuer

Codi Dalton Heuer is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Chicago Cubs of Major League Baseball. He played college baseball at Wichita State University. He previously played for the Chicago White Sox. He made his MLB debut in 2020.

That first season (2020) was with the White Sox, and it was nothing short of spectacular. 3-0, 1.52 ERA in 23⅔ innings over 21 games. 1 HR, 9BB, 25 SO.

Heuer was traded to the Cubs, with infielder Nick Madrigal, for closer Craig Kimbrel. The jury is still out as to whether it was a good trade or not. Kimbrel had his ups and downs in his Sox tenure, while Heuer has been sidelined for a year after a promising start for the Cubs, and Madrigal has yet to crack the starting lineup — indeed, he’s in Triple-A, raking, but in Triple A nonetheless.

Heuer spilt the 2021 season between the Chicago teams, and the results were pretty solid. 7-4 overall in 65 games, a 4.28 ERA, seven home runs allowed in 67⅓ innings pitched over 65 games.

His 2022 season was lost due to Tommy John surgery — Heuer is healing rather quickly, but I suspect he’s still going to take some time to get back to the big club. He’s pitching to live batters in his rehab stint and it’s said that he may be back as soon as late June.

Although Codi Heuer got back into competitive game action at Triple-A Iowa sooner than many were expecting, that doesn’t necessarily mean he is going to return to the big league team sooner than many were expecting. — Brett Taylor.

“The velocity’s been there, but we want to make sure he’s really right when he comes up,” Jed Hoyer said. “Tommy John rehabs are fickle things. There are ups and downs when you go through it. Right now, he’s not in a place where we felt like it was the right time to call him up. But that could happen quickly. There’s no doubt he’s going to help us.” — Patrick Mooney {$}.

Heuer throws a four-seam fastball, a slider, and a changeup. His fastball tops out in the high nineties, his slider and change in the high 80s. He throws a little over 50% fastballs and splits the rest fairly evenly. HIs slider has a sharp downward curve along with some lateral movement and creates a lot of swing-and-miss opportunities — with the change, it’s a classic setup/closer repertoire, and that’s how the Cubs view Heuer, whose right arm should certainly be an asset as 2023 trundles along.

I’m not sure that he’d have much in terms of trade value, so the Cubs are likely to ride with Codi Heuer for the rest of the season, at least. The 26-year-old Heuer is an ARB1 player and will be looking a raise in the offseason.

Heuer had one strikeout in an inning’s worth of work Tuesday, June 6, and is sporting an ERA of 9.00 at present for Iowa, in 10 innings over 11 games. He’s had three bad outings that have lofted his ERA, when he lost the strike zone, walked people, and then had to get the ball over the plate.

Hoyer’s point is well-made. The Cubs are looking for consistency. If Heuer delivers any semblance of that, he’s a good bet to be retained for 2024 and perhaps beyond. It’s all riding on his rebuilt arm.