It hasn’t been TOO much of a stretch to speculate that Brennen Davis’s explosion at Double-A – not to mention his eye-grabbing two-homer game at the Future’s Game – would give his prospect standing a boost when the various re-ranks took place this summer and then into the fall. Davis, 21, was already on the radar as a consensus top 75 guy, with some seeing him closer to top 50. And that was after just 50 games at Low-A back in 2019. With him blowing up two levels higher at such a young age – considerably younger than the average pitcher in the league – it wasn’t hard to see he was going to bounce.
But I’m not sure I saw him immediately bouncing QUITE this high, QUITE this quickly.
The FanGraphs crew incorporated the 2021 draft class into their recent team and top 100 rankings, and did a quick top 100 update in conjunction. There, top Cubs prospect Brennen Davis flies all the way up to number 17, just behind guys like Vidal Brujan and Grayson Rodriguez, and just ahead of guys like Nate Pearson and Luis Campusano. That is serious stud territory, especially when you consider that a bunch of guys ahead of Davis are already in the big leagues and will graduate soon. He’s going to be top 15 very quickly.
Davis is currently hitting .273/.385/.500 at Double-A Tennessee (146 wRC+), despite being years younger than his competition and having just 50 games of Low-A experience before this season.
Just a reminder that the #Cubs have a 21-year-old center fielder slashing .273/.385/.500 (146 wRC+) in his first attempt at Double-A … where the average age of players is 24.5 years old.
Oh, and he was also the Future's Game MVP.
Brennen Davis. Stud. pic.twitter.com/Nu3M3ZQHE1
— Michael Cerami (@Michael_Cerami) July 21, 2021
It’s been about four years since the Cubs had a top 20 prospect in the game (Jose Quintana trade … ), so this is just a nice step. Davis could see time at Triple-A later this year, and then he’d enter 2022 with a meaningful shot to play his way onto the big league roster, say, in the second half of the season. You don’t want to *count* on it as part of your roster construction – he’ll be just 22, after all – but it’s conceivable. And that’s fun.
Of course, the flip side of Davis’s rapid rise in the updated rankings is the fact that Brailyn Marquez, who still hasn’t pitched yet (COVID, then a shoulder issue), has fallen off the top 100 (it’s actually 123 because of the way FanGraphs ranks players by Future Value). The only other Cub who makes the list is Reggie Preciado, at exactly number 123.