A handful of stray prospect notes for your Friday afternoon …
Patrick Mooney and Sahadev Sharma write about the Cubs’ dramatically improved pitching depth, and about how it could/should generate a reason for the Cubs to push harder this offseason to add impact at the big league level (presumably via free agency). Therein, some arms get some love, and there’s a philosophical note:
And more seem to be coming in the minors. Jeremiah Estrada could be up as soon as September, and perhaps Manny Rodriguez returns soon, too. Danis Correa hit triple digits in Iowa the other night. Zac Leigh has reached Double A and is impressing with stuff and results, putting him on the 2023 bullpen radar. There are more, and those are just the relief prospects. The starting depth hasn’t been this strong for the Cubs in probably more than a decade.
Craig Breslow, the Cubs’ vice president of pitching/assistant general manager, put it this way: “Pitching development can be fickle, at times, so there’s a ton of value in having a bunch of guys at every level that we see as future major-league contributors. It’s not always the guys that we had anticipated going into the season, which is a credit to the work that they put in, the staff, the resources that we have available here.”
Estrada and Rodriguez on the way? Yup, I’d love to see them next month in the Cubs’ bullpen.
You won’t be surprised to learn that Pete Crow-Armstrong is doing things, statistically, that place him in a truly elite performance tier this season:
I’ve increasingly been thinking about how, if you believe in the bat, then there’s no reason PCA shouldn’t be a top 20 prospect in baseball. Because the speed and the glove are going to stick around, and the only question is whether he also has an impact bat. Given what he’s doing at age 20 at High-A – in his first full pro season, mind you! – it seems a pretty fair bet that he could have an impact bat.
Top draft picks Cade Horton and Jackson Ferris were at Wrigley Field this week for a tour and a meet and greet, but there were also some notes from Jed Hoyer on the near-term plan for these guys:
Hoyer and the Cubs also mapped out a plan with Horton and Ferris for how the next six months look.
“They’ve been excited to be in Arizona,” Hoyer said. “Getting a taste of pro ball. It’s a little different taste because they’re not competing. They’re throwing bullpens and sort of active rest, so to speak.
“I think they’ve learned a lot, just being out there, getting around the environment, the guys, roasting in the 115-degree weather,” Hoyer joked. “They’ll be with us in the Instructional League and most likely over the winter.”
In other words, don’t expect to see either guy pitch competitively this year (was already pretty much a lock, since the Arizona Complex League is over), but instead their “debut” of sorts will come in instructional ball after the season. From there, they’ll have an individualized development plan to work on through November and December, and then they might be back in Arizona in January if the Cubs do their prospect camp again.
If you didn’t see it yesterday, a trio of promotions from the ACL to Myrtle Beach:
Love to see that Reggie Preciado is going to get several more weeks of game action at Myrtle Beach before the year is up, that Haydn McGeary will get in some full-season action in his draft year (remember, he’s the guy who put up hilarious numbers in college, albeit at a lower level), and that Pedro Ramirez gets the super early bump to full-season ball. Remember, Ramirez is the slight, 18-year-old, switch-hitting middle infielder who raked in the DSL last year and raked in the ACL this year.
Bryan mentioned Hayden Wesneski’s great start this morning, but I just wanted to underscore how dominant he’s been his last two times out:
I didn’t know Matt Mervis had this tool, too:
NEWSLETTER
