CHICAGO – The timing seemed odd to Rowan Wick.

The first time the St. Louis Cardinals approached Wick about converting to a pitcher, he was coming off a 20-home run season. Wick, then a catcher and outfielder, split the 2014 season between Low-A and Single-A ball, hitting .292 with 20 homers and 60 RBIs.

The Cardinals, who drafted Wick in the ninth round of the 2012 draft, brought up the subject during the instructional league that October.

“I wasn’t ready to make the switch,” Wick said. “Even the next year, I did really well in spring training, but then kind of stumbled. They gave me all of April and then into May to hit. It just wasn’t what it should have been.”

Wick opened the 2015 season hitting .198, and the Cardinals presented him with a choice.

“Either I was about to get released as a hitter, or I was going to pitch,” Wick said.

Four years later, the Cubs’ right-handed reliever is finding himself in more and more late-inning situations. With a battered and injured bullpen, Wick is taking advantage of the spotlight.

In 16 appearances, he has a 2.55 ERA in 172/3 innings. He has struck out 20 and walked seven. He earned his first career save Saturday in Pittsburgh.

“I’ve been in situations in the past where young pitchers – right about this time of the year, getting opportunity – with good stuff become somebody,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “So we’re going to find out.”

That Wick is on a mound at all is a testament to his willingness to adapt to anything in order to achieve his big-league dream. People always told Wick he had the arm to be a pitcher. At 6-foot-3, 235 pounds, he had the strength to throw a baseball well above 90 mph.

“It was always a potential backup plan, I guess,” Wick said.

With his back against a wall in 2015, Wick finally relented. He spent the entire next year learning the mechanics of pitching. It was an adjustment for his body.

“I would be sore for like three or four days,” Wick said. “The recovery time just wasn’t good. I would throw bullpens, and it as like, yeah, I can’t throw [again] for like four days.”

From the beginning, Wick could hit 95 mph on the speed gun. The big challenge was cleaning up his throwing motion and developing his offspeed pitches.

He spent that offseason working with a San Diego-based pitching coach, Dom Johnson. Wick threw in only three games in the Gulf Coast League in 2015. His pitching career began in earnest the next season at High-A ball in 2016.

Wick had never spent much time on a mound. Sure, he threw a little bit in high school.

“I guess you could call it pitching, but I wasn’t a pitcher,” Wick said.

He rose through the Cardinals’ minor league system relatively quickly the next two years, reaching Triple A in 2017.

When the Cardinals signed pitcher Bud Norris in February 2018, they designated Wick for assignment. The Padres quickly picked up Wick off waivers.

On Aug. 23 last season as a member of the Triple-A El Paso Chihuahuas, Wick flew with the team from Fresno, California, through Phoenix to El Paso, Texas. Standing in the El Paso airport waiting for his bag, Wick learned from manager Rod Barajas that he had been called up to the Padres.

He was quickly back on a plane. There were no direct flights from El Paso to San Diego, so once again he stopped at the airport in Phoenix en route.

“Then I showed up to the ballpark right before the game, quickly ran out to the bullpen and three hours later I was pitching,” Wick said. “I was not complaining at all.”

Wick threw eight pitches in his big-league debut, a scoreless inning with one strikeout. He pitched nine more times for the Padres in September.

In November, the Cubs traded minor leaguer Jason Vosler for Wick. Wick has been called up three times this season with the Cubs. Since his most recent call July 22, he has pitched 11 times in 23 games.

“Everybody since I’ve gotten here has made me feel comfortable,” Wick said. “It’s awesome. I just pitch when they tell me to.”

Maddon has not been afraid to use the former catcher in the seventh, eighth or ninth innings.

“We’ve put him in some moments,” Maddon said. “It’s all about controlling your emotions. I like that he comes out and he’s not afraid to throw his curveball. He’s not holding that back. The fastball command has been really good. It’s been good up in the zone. He’s not afraid to challenge people, righties or lefties.”