Just four days after the Chicago Cubs selected him in the fourth round<\/a> of the 2025 Major League Baseball draft out of Scotts Valley High School in July, the right-handed pitcher was in Mesa, Arizona, ready for rookie ball \u2014 a stop that many players fresh out of high school hit to prepare for a full minor league season.<\/p>\n \u201cThose first couple days were just getting baselines of pretty much every metric you can think of,\u201d said Wing, who turns 19 on Jan. 12. \u201cBody weight, height, mobility, a bunch of medical imaging.\u201d<\/p>\n Wing, primarily a shortstop for most of his playing career, started taking pitching seriously only a year before he was drafted. Despite his obvious natural talent, he said he spent the first few months with the Cubs in meetings about weightlifting, conditioning and nutrition. In fact, Wing said he didn\u2019t throw at all for the six months in rookie ball, because he was focused on getting bigger and stronger and on preparing for his first full season in 2026.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was like here\u2019s where you are now, and here\u2019s where we need you to be, and this is what getting there is going to look like,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was very detailed, but very exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n Wing said that planning is one of the biggest differences in pro baseball. Every player has a routine and an individualized plan catered to his strengths and weaknesses \u2014 even the established professional players more than 10 years older than him. Having those veterans around provided him with some mentorship, too. He said he got the chance to pick the brains of guys who had already reached the majors, including 2021 11th-rounder Jack Neely<\/a> and even 2023 All-Star Justin Steele<\/a>, who finished fifth in the voting that year for the National League\u2019s Cy Young Award recognizing the league\u2019s best pitcher. But advice came from players of all calibers and stages of their careers.<\/p>\n \u201cRight after the draft a couple guys got released and one of them sat me down to tell me don\u2019t take any day for granted,\u201d Wing said. \u201cYou\u2019re working every day to be a big leaguer and don\u2019t let a single day slip away from you.\u201d<\/p>\n The everyday training tools at the team\u2019s disposal are \u201cunbelievable,\u201d according to Wing. He described a small motion-tracking sensor manufactured by a company called Catapult that helps keep him on a steady routine each day. The device tracks the intensity of his motion and other training to ensure he\u2019s working at a low intensity on some days and a high intensity on others. It might sound like something from MLB\u2019s own surveillance state, but Wing takes the monitoring in stride.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just another way to keep guys healthier and monitor the intent of your movements,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a crazy piece of technology that I\u2019ve never seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n In high school, Wing\u2019s arsenal included a fastball that touched the mid-90s, a curveball, a slider and a changeup. That pitch mix is still intact, with no additions or subtractions at this point, but Cubs pitching coaches say adding velocity should be his main goal.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve had the number 100 [mph] in my head, so that\u2019s been the goal,\u201d he said. \u201cI have a lot of work to do, and that\u2019s been my daily reminder. I\u2019m doing this to eventually get there.\u201d<\/p>\n Wing expects to report to spring training in February and join the Cubs\u2019 Single-A affiliate, the Myrtle Beach Pelicans<\/a> in South Carolina, afterward. And while he works through his first full season in the minors, he has another big, but important, goal on top of getting stronger and maybe even reaching 100 on the radar gun: staying healthy.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s more than 100 games in a minor league season and staying healthy through that is big,\u201d Wing said, especially since that\u2019s a far longer season than he\u2019s played up to this point. \u201cI have a long way to go to be where I want to be, so I\u2019m working every day to put myself in a good position for it.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/newsmakers-2025.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Kaleb-Wing-12.jpg\")
Credit: Kevin Painchaud \/ Lookout Santa Cruz<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Kaleb-Wing-18.jpg\")
Credit: Kevin Painchaud \/ Lookout Santa Cruz<\/p>\n