NEWSLETTER
Tonight marks Opening Day for the Puerto Rican Winter League (also known as Liga de Béisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente), which is going to be most notable to Cubs fans as a chance to check-in on Miguel Amaya’s development.
The Panamanian catcher is expected to suit up for Los Criollos de Caguas, and should give the Cubs some nice context for what expectations to have on Amaya’s bat in 2021. I’m assuming Amaya start in Double-A, just as he would have had there been a 2020 minor league season, and there will be room for him in Triple-A Iowa should his performance warrant a promotion.
Expect a few other Cubs to pop up in Puerto Rico, as well: Trent Giambrone, Zach Davis, Luis Vazquez, Nelson Velazquez to name a few who appeared on preliminary rosters.
More prospect notes from the last week …
•  Cubs farm director Matt Dorey appeared on the NBC Sports Chicago podcast Cubs Talk, touching on a handful of players who appeared both at the Alternate Training Site in South Bend and the Instructional League in Arizona. The interview begins at the nine minute mark:
https://twitter.com/NBCSCubs/status/1336094307426717707
•  It sounds like the expectation going into Spring Training is that Amaya will be joined in Double-A by three of his highly-ranked prospect buddies from South Bend: Brennen Davis, Chris Morel and Brailyn Marquez. Dorey mentioned that Davis struggled a bit at the onset of the South Bend “season” against more advanced pitching, but credited Davis for digging in and posting an elite final few weeks. Marquez also started slowly, as it sounds like the pandemic led to him being out of shape when he returned from the Dominican Republic to report to South Bend. Marquez has started slowly in each of his last three seasons, so you just hope the diet and conditioning programs the Cubs have put him on really have an effect this winter.
•  Dorey mentioned Justin Steele as someone that impressed at South Bend early, earning his call-up to the Major Leagues that resulted in … zero appearances. Steele then tweaked his hamstring and never quite got back in the big league mix, but Dorey mentioned that he’ll be in camp to both compete for a bullpen job and to provide starter depth. I love Steele’s profile in the bullpen, where his new slider should play-up, and he’s got the right bulldog mentality for that role. 2021 is a massive season for Steele, as it’s likely his final with a minor league option available to the Cubs.
•  In talking about Instructs, Dorey gave us a new name to get excited about: undrafted free agent Ben Leeper. I’d been told that Leeper and first baseman Matt Mervis were probably the top two UDFA prospects the Cubs signed after the draft, but Dorey highlighted Leeper as a guy who is 97 mph with a good slider. That lines up with what I saw from a quick mini-scout after the Cubs signed him. More surprising, Dorey talked about Leeper starting 2021 at High-A or even Double-A, and wouldn’t write-off the possibility of him contributing to the big league team. Expect him to be an Honorable Mention in my prospect list (coming early 2021!).
•  Sounds like we’ll be getting official word on the Cubs affiliate structure moving forward as soon as this week:
Hearing from a significant number of sources that the MLB is expected to send out of the 120 invites on Wednesday. As always in this story things could change, but that is the expectation.
— JJ Cooper (@jjcoop36) December 8, 2020
•  Don’t expect any real surprises for the Cubs. Iowa and Tennessee seem set to remain in their roles, while I’d expect South Bend and Myrtle Beach flip-flop as the High-A and Low-A affiliates, respectively. The Cubs will likely lose a good partner in the Eugene Emeralds, but the well-run Eugene franchise should be looking at a promotion themselves. Baseball America also reported that MLB is considering allowing 180 stateside minor league players, which would potentially allow the Cubs to continue using two teams in the AZL complex league. I sure hope they do.
•  Michael Rucker was the only Cubs prospect mentioned in Baseball America‘s 50-deep player preview of Thursday’s Rule 5 Draft (he was taken last year by the Orioles and ultimately returned), though I think the Cubs are probably thinking it’s possible that Dakota Mekkes, P.J. Higgins, or even Bryan Hudson could also be lost in the Major League phase. Among the guys previewed by J.J. Cooper, I’m intrigued by Buddy Reed, a second-round pick in 2016 that was traded from the Padres to the A’s in the Jurickson Profar trade. The Cubs are completely lacking in outfield depth, and Reed wouldn’t make the worst 26th man as an elite defensive outfielder, pinch runner, and emergency pinch hitter. Or I guess the Cubs could just hear Brett’s pleas to re-sign Billy Hamilton instead.
•  Update from the Mexican Winter League (also known as LMP): Eddy Martinez and Juan Gamez left Los Mochis after about a month of action, which would have been negotiated ahead of time, and both were impressive. Martinez finished with a .298/.307/.548 batting line, while Gamez had a 1.54 ERA in 11.2 innings (though the groundballer struck out just five). A few Cubs prospects remain, including the highly-regarded Luis Verdugo, whom Brett mentioned in Sunday’s Bullets. Jose Albertos has been back on the mound after an early season lower body injury, and things continue to be a struggle for him, with a ERA in the double digits. Sigh. Manuel Espinoza popped up in game action recently as well, and has also struggled in two starts against the most advanced competition he’s yet faced.
