The main window of minor league signings will not come until the offseason arrives, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a pool of players the Cubs can be tapping into already now that the Independent Leagues seasons are over.
And per a report, the Cubs have already made their first post-indy-league season signing:
Source: Cuban INF Alejandro Rivero (24) signed with the Chicago Cubs as an undrafted free agent a few minutes ago. Rivero had 3 seasons in Baseball College with @StThomasUniv and destroyed the Pioneer League with @BoiseHawks in 2021 with .352, 20 HR, 70 RBI. He left Cuba in 2015. pic.twitter.com/u3QDTKxHXq
— Francys Romero (@francysromero10) October 21, 2021
Romero has had some scoops like this in the past, so it’s possible he’s got this one right. I did the best internet sleuthing I could, and although there is not yet any confirmation from of the signing from Rivero’s former team, I think I was able to find his real Instagram account (by way of the Twitter account his team tagged him at), and there it does say he is now in the Chicago Cubs organization. So I wouldn’t quite call this a confirmed signing yet, I do think it looks legit.
Rivero, a 24-year-old infielder (third and shortstop), got off to a later start in his college career because he was a Cuban defector, and played at St. Thomas in Florida (NAIA) from 2019 to 2021. He crushed the ball there, and found himself on the Pioneer League Boise Hawks this year. For the Hawks, he hit .352/.401/.668 with more extra-base hits (41) than strikeouts (37). To be sure, offense is very inflated in the Pioneer league, but Rivero still topped the league average OPS by 200 points. To the extent you can crush an indy league, he did.
How that translates to affiliated ball at age 24, well, you can’t know if you don’t try. Odds would seem not great, just based on age and experience. We don’t have any meaningful scouting information on Rivero just yet, so there’s not a lot to go off of beyond the general principle that it’s great to take low-cost shots on guys who have done nothing but rake wherever they got the chance to play.
This is a pretty swing: https://t.co/314GlR4D3X
— Brad (@ballskwok) October 21, 2021
THREE RUN HOME RUN for @Arivero1717 puts the Papas Fritas up early in the first pic.twitter.com/4VLtB4b16i
— Hawks (@BoiseHawks) September 6, 2021