Baseball America’s Ben Badler hinted last night that a new article on Cuban prospect Yoan Moncada was coming today, which was plenty to pique my interest. Sure enough, today there is a new breakdown on Moncada as a prospect and where he would rank for Badler, which is well worth a read.
The cool thing, though, is that I was pleasantly surprised to find a Chicago Cubs easter egg planted within the Moncada piece. Namely that, for Badler, there are currently four Chicago Cubs prospects in his personal top 20: Kris Bryant, Addison Russell, Jorge Soler … and Kyle Schwarber.
The first three aren’t a huge surprise, though it’s nice to see Soler once again comfortably included with the top two guys.
But seeing Schwarber that high – to Badler, at least – after his professional debut is really heartening. I asked Badler about the ranking, whether it had more to do with the bat or a belief that Schwarber can stick behind the plate. Badler said it was mostly about Schwarber’s offensive ability, which is even more heartening, because the offense is going to go with Schwarber wherever he plays defensively.
All in all, it’s a huge vote of confidence in Schwarber, and underscores, once again, how strong the Cubs’ farm system is at the top. Having four top twenty guys – even if just to one evaluator – is incredible, especially after you consider that Javier Baez and Arismendy Alcantara graduated last year.