It’s been a rough, rough, rough start to the year at High-A South Bend for Owen Caissie. Everyone knew it was a challenging assignment for the 19-year-old outfielder who’d primarily played in complex ball last year, with just 22 games at Low-A. The most charitable small sample chunk you could take to show some progress would be his last six games, when he’s hit .200/.273/.250 (57 wRC+). Yes. That’s the charitably selected chunk.
That’s probably why I was so happy to see Caissie finally go deep for the first time this season. And he did it with a grand slam:
Eighth-ranked #Cubs prospect Owen Caissie slams his first homer of the year for the @SBCubs. pic.twitter.com/P3SMdm51UA
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) May 11, 2022
There will be more to his process beyond that one swing, but you do hope that, to the extent there was even a very small mental component to his early-season struggles, this might help remind him of his talent. That bat can be very, very special.