It seemed to be a matter of when, not if, the Cubs would promote Hayden Wesneski to the big leagues.
But they still found a way to catch him off guard when they made the call.
“I teared up a little bit,” said Wesneski, who was on a breakfast run Monday in Jacksonville, Fla., when he got the call from Triple-A Iowa manager Marty Pevey.
“I'm not gonna lie,” Wesneski added. “I’m not one to hide it. It was really cool.”
That emotional moment came only about a month after Wesneski joined the Cubs organization, coming over from the Yankees at the trade deadline in the Scott Effross deal.
A trade that Wesneski — the Cubs' No. 12 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline — didn’t necessarily expect, but in a way, did.
“Around the trade deadline,” Wesneski said, “the Yankees, you kind of expect — especially if you're a younger guy — you expect to get traded. It's just something that could happen.
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“It's a possibility every time, every year. Especially last year, I saw a bunch of my friends go.”
The Yankees are annually in win-now mode, so when Wesneski got a call from farm director Kevin Reese around the deadline, he had a feeling what could be coming.
Only, he didn’t fully know what was coming.
“In the locker room, there's jokes about like where are you going?” Wesneski said. “There’s teams that you have in mind, and the Cubs weren't one of them [for me].
“And [Reese] told me I was going to the Cubs, and I was really stoked. I've always admired the Cubs and stuff like that.”
Wesneski soon caught a flight to Des Moines to join the Iowa Cubs, and on Tuesday was promoted to the big leagues for the first time.
The promotion reunites him with Daniel Moskos, the Cubs assistant pitching coach who coached Wesneski in Double-A with New York last season.
Wesneski got his first taste of The Show in Tuesday’s series opener against the Reds, delivering a dominant outing in relief of starter Wade Miley. He’s “pumped” to be back with Moskos.
“He's a good dude,” Wesneski said. “He knows what he's doing. He's well rounded and when it comes to the pitching side, he's a great guy and he gets stuff done.
“We mash heads a little bit, but it's a good kind of mashing heads.”
Wesneski said he almost called Pevey back to ask if he was sure the Cubs were promoting him, which led to a humorous exchange with his dad.
"I told my dad, 'I think I got called up?' I wasn't sure and I hadn't gotten any text messages," Wesneski said. "And he goes, 'Well, I can't tell anyone that until you figure it out for real.'"
"So, that's how it went."
And so far, it's all worked out.