NEWSLETTER
Now we’re cookin’. Well, OK, maybe it’s still a “getting there” situation, but this is what you wanted to see progressively over the course of this season.
The Cubs now have four top 100 prospects, according to MLB Pipeline:
30. Brennen Davis, OF
69. Cristian Hernández, SS
80. Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF
99. Kevin Alcántara, OF
Notably, this is *not* a complete re-rank of the top 100. That is still coming, and for most publications, it will not come until after the MLB Draft. Instead, Pipeline re-ranked the top 15, removed graduates, resorted a handful of the most significant movers (for example, Brennen Davis falling from 15 to 30 because of his back surgery), and slid in new prospects at the back.
In other words, the fact that Alcántara – for example – came in at 99 simply means that he was among the “next players up,” known to be top 100 types (four new prospects joined the list at 97 through 100), but his precise ranking within the top 100 will come later.
As for whether we’ll see any additional Cubs prospects in those re-ranked top 100s, I’d call it better than 50/50. To my mind, the four above are pretty clearly top 100s at this point, and that should be nearly universal. From there, you have a number of possibilities for additional top 100s: Caleb Kilian already gets borderline top 100 consideration, though a lot will depend on what happens over the next couple months; Owen Caissie has turned it on so much in May and June that he should get consideration given how young he is; James Triantos has caught sufficient fire that he may also get consideration; DJ Herz is one of the most prolific strikeout pitchers in the entire minor leagues, so he’s gotta at least get some consideration; the Cubs could get an immediate top 100 type in the draft; and it’s possible, though unlikely, that the Cubs could add another top 100 at the Trade Deadline.
Take that all together, and I suspect we’re going to see the Cubs as having five or six “top 100 types” by the end of this year.
For today, for at least one ranking, it’s definitely up to four.
Oh, bonus fun fact? Cristian Hernández is the only prospect on the entire top 100 who hasn’t yet reached full-season ball. In case you were wondering how high the scouts are on Hernández’s potential …
