NEWSLETTER
Minor league spring training is finally underway, which means a month-long ramp up to a minor league season FINALLY being underway. I am obviously more focused on the big league team as a general principle, but the fact that, come May, it’ll approach two years since we’ve been able to follow minor league baseball on the regular? I’m probably going to let out an even bigger exhale when the minor leagues are finally back.
With the minor leagues on the mind, Baseball America updated its team top 30 prospect lists from the fall to account for trades and international free agency. For the Cubs, this mean some pretty significant changes! Here’s the updated list, on which I’ll drop some comments, but let me urge that you head over to read the individual prospect notes and scouting reports if you want to really dig in on these guys:
1. Brailyn Marquez, LHP
2. Brennen Davis, OF
3. Cristian Hernandez, SS
4. Miguel Amaya, C
5. Ed Howard, SS
6. Adbert Alzolay, RHP
7. Kohl Franklin, RHP
8. Ryan Jensen, RHP
9. Christopher Morel, 3B
10. Chase Strumpf, 2B
11. Reggie Preciado, SS
12. Riley Thompson, RHP
13. Cory Abbott, RHP
14. Burl Carraway, LHP
15. Cole Roederer, OF
16. Ismael Mena, OF
17. Yeison Santana, SS
18. Luis Verdugo, SS
19. Chris Clarke, RHP
20. Michael McAvene, RHP
21. Kevin Made, SS
22. Justin Steele, LHP
23. Alfonso Rivas, 1B
24. Jordan Nwogu, OF
25. Owen Caissie, OF
26. Yohendrick Pinango, OF
27. Tyson Miller, RHP
28. Keegan Thompson, RHP
29. Moises Ballesteros, C
30. Jack Patterson, LHP
Immediately, I know what jumps out to you as it does to me: holy smokes BA is really high on Cristian Hernandez. As a fresh IFA signing, not only does he slot in third in the Cubs’ system, but the guy he passes there in Miguel Amaya was a borderline top 100 prospect. That means, coming straight from the Dominican Republic, and without any professional experience, BA sees Hernandez as already on the cusp of top 100 consideration. We knew they were big fans, but yo. That’s some seriously high praise. I know he’s only 17, but I hope he stays stateside this year so we can follow/see some game action.
Not to be forgotten, the Cubs’ other top IFA signing this go around, Moises Ballesteros, makes the list at 29. A surprisingly high debut, to be sure, but he was a top 30-50-ish prospect in this year’s class.
As all other publications have, shortstop Reggie Preciado slots in as the top prospect the Cubs got in the Yu Darvish trade, right there in the 9 to 11 range. Interestingly, BA has outfielder Ismael Mena as the next-best prospect in that deal, at a relatively high 16th in the system.
I’ve noticed a lot of publications are grouping the Santana-Verdugo-Made trio of young shortstops in roughly the same range in these rankings, though I believe BA is the first to have Made as the low man in this group.
Chris Clarke sure is going to be a guy to watch this year. The Cubs’ 4th rounder in 2019 has been seen very little because of the timing of the pandemic, but it’s clear from the rankings/scouting reports this offseason that he has been very impressive to those who’ve had a look at him. MLB Pipeline recently rated him as having one of the three best curveballs in the minor leagues. Again, with basically no game exposure, that means the scouts who’ve seen him work have been very impressed.
