The first few weeks of the minor league season haven’t been too great for a large number of the Cubs’ positional prospects. Yes, that’s been a trend around minor league baseball this year (and Cubs pitching prospects have been quite good), but you still kinda wish you were seeing more breakouts.
One of the Cubs’ big bats who has been struggling badly is Alexander Canario, the 21-year-old outfielder that came over last July in the Kris Bryant trade (together with starter Caleb Kilian). Coming into yesterday, Canario was hitting just .176/.263/.333 (70 wRC+) with a YIKES-inducing 45.6% strikeout rate. It’s so early, and most of that came from a first four brutal games to the season, but still. It’s not what you want to see from a guy who is already on the 40-man roster, and who really needs to reach Double-A this year (he’s got just two option years left after this season).
Well, Canario had himself A DAY yesterday, with a single, a walk, and these two bad boys:
So nice he did it twice.@Cubs No. 18 prospect Alexander Canario smacks two home runs for the @SBCubs! pic.twitter.com/AFMSXVA0oP
— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) April 27, 2022
That second one! Holy smokes. The kids trying to figure out where it landed. I’m not laughing at them, of course, it’s just funny to see! Sorry, kids. I don’t think that one stayed in the building.
Canario is one of the hardest hitters in the system, so when he gets into one, it really goes. The strikeouts are really the issue, but they aren’t necessarily driven by a swing-and-miss problem – more likely that it happens because, when he gets behind in the count, he’s more likely to strike out than most. You also wonder if he’s not being quite aggressive enough early in the count.
After the big day, Canario’s line is up to .218/.306/.473 (116 wRC+), with the strikeout rate obviously still being the thing that’s holding it all down. He takes his walks. He has superior power. Presumably just needs to keep working on putting the ball in play when he gets down in the count, and maybe do his damage sometimes earlier in the count.