The Chicago Cubs have another top 100 prospect, at least by Baseball America’s latest ranking.
With a couple graduations to account for here in the early part of the season, BA slid two new names on their top 100, and that includes recent Cubs international signing Cristian Hernandez:
Two new additions to the Top 💯 this morning.
The Orioles and Cubs add rising prospects to the list.
See the new 100: https://t.co/UfBZeP5YDN pic.twitter.com/u3YULIGz0q
— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) April 27, 2021
Landing on a national top 100 list immediately after signing as an IFA is extremely rare. It happens periodically, but it tends to be reserved only for those IFAs with (1) really significant upside, and (2) a very high degree of confidence that the ability to play stateside ball is going to translate immediately.
So for Hernandez, the Cubs’ top IFA signing since the Eloy Jimenez-Gleyber Torres class (prospects who did not immediately show up on top 100s!), this is a really notable honor. It’s maybe not a huge shock, given that BA has been disproportionately extremely high on Hernandez all along, but it’s definitely notable.
Hernandez, at 100, joins Brailyn Marquez (47) and Brennen Davis (65) on BA’s list. Other top 100s have included Miguel Amaya near the back end, with Ed Howard and Adbert Alzolay being the only other guys even approaching that conversation this past offseason. The Cubs will need some big breakouts this year if they’re going to feature more names on the midseason lists.
We’ll see where Hernandez makes his Cubs farm system debut this year, whether it’s stateside in rookie ball, or in the Dominican Summer League. I wouldn’t read TOO much into either placement, given how mucked up everything is in this transition year (and given that Hernandez turned 17 in December (oh, and given that the Cubs have a load of very young top shortstops to make sure they’re giving starts to)). I’m just excited for him to finally get into some action and we can get some updated scouting reports.