It was another fun note among a day full of ’em on Opening Day: Cubs prospect Nico Hoerner, he of the tremendous Arizona Fall League and Spring Training performances, is getting the fast-track treatment, beginning his first full professional season at AA. It’s the kind of thing we’ve seen before with the Cubs’ TIPPY TOP positional college draft picks, but that shouldn’t obscure for us just how rare this is.
Cubs President Theo Epstein acknowledges just how rare it is, but hey, Nico’s a rare player:
Cubs president Theo Epstein says Nico Hoerner, last year’s first-round pick, is starting at Double-A Tennessee without being viewed as major-league depth this season: “It is an aggressive placement, but he is uncommonly mature and advanced for his age."
— Patrick Mooney (@PJ_Mooney) March 28, 2019
Epstein on @nico_hoerner starting at Double-A Tennessee: "We felt it’s an aggressive placement, but we feel he’s a very mature kid in both in the way he plays the game and the way he handles any adversity thrown his way. We feel he’s ready and prepared for it."
— Mark Gonzales (@MDGonzales) March 28, 2019
There will almost certainly be ups and downs for Hoerner at Tennessee, which is actually not a bad thing if it happens: as part of the development process, you want a young player to be at a level where he’ll be challenged, where he’ll see right in his face the adjustments he’s going to have to make to keep climbing the ladder.
But, hey, what if even AA isn’t a challenge yet for Hoerner? How about he keeps right on climbing, eh?
Sure, maybe, but don’t expect it:
Theo on Nico: "We believe he can handle it. But we expect him to be at Double-A for – if not the whole year – then the great, great majority of the year.”
— Patrick Mooney (@PJ_Mooney) March 28, 2019
In other words, the Cubs are planning – at most – to give Hoerner a later-season taste of AAA if his work at AA justifies it. That, too, can be a really nice developmental tool to deploy before the offseason: show a young player the things he’ll need to work on in the months ahead to be ready for the next season.
However this plays out, it’s really exciting for the Cubs to have THIS kind of position player once again. Hoerner doesn’t turn 22 until May, so he’ll still be plenty young even when next season begins. Here’s hoping, by then, he’s already started to give the Cubs some tough things to think about.