The farm system comeback is ON!
After years of promotions and trades to keep the big league team as competitive as possible, and after drafting low and having IFA limitations, the Chicago Cubs’ farm system recently bottomed out. There were always intriguing prospects, to be sure, but you could have sought out any rankings service or objective and knowledgeable third party observer and they would have told you the same: the Cubs’ farm system is in the bottom five or so in baseball.
It’s not a shot at the Cubs organization or the prospects; it’s just kinda how the natural cycle works if you’re doing things right.
For that reason, the Cubs were without a “top 100” type prospect for a good long while. Probably the last full year, marked by last July’s trade of Eloy Jimenez and Dylan Cease.
BUT NO MORE! BEHOLD! A TOP 100 PROSPECT!
https://twitter.com/BaseballAmerica/status/1021436074667724801
That, of course, is South Bend catcher Miguel Amaya, who pairs a glove-first scouting background with a bat that is emerging in full-season ball. The 19-year-old Panamanian backstop was in the Futures Game this year, and is hitting .272/.343/.462 (124 wRC+) in his first go at full-season ball. That will get you some deserved love.
I especially like how well he’s hitting – especially at his age – when the bulk of Baseball America’s writeup focuses on his defense:
Amaya’s defense ranks ahead of his offense at this point, which helped him make such a jump as a teen catcher. His intangibles fit the position; he has leadership skills, plays with energy and has the desire to catch. He also has catch-and-throw skills, with soft hands and the agility to block balls in the dirt. His arm strength was just fringy when he signed but has improved to above-average with 1.95-second pop times, and he threw out 41 percent of basestealers in 2017