You may recall that there was hope Brennen Davis (general soreness) would return to Arizona Fall League play this past weekend, but that did not happen. With the season in its final couple weeks, you start to wonder if he’ll play again. I sure hope so.
Elsewhere in Cubs prospecting …
Owen Caissie has definitely been heating up in the Arizona Fall League, where he is among the youngest players in the league:
After a slow start, Caissie is now hitting .278/.316/.472 in the AFL, which is just about a league average OPS (it’s a very offense-heavy league).
Jordan Bastian wrote up a handful of Cubs prospects for their breakouts in 2022, and others who have forced themselves onto the radar. It’s a lot of names that you’d expect, but I want to spotlight that one of the three players mentioned as forcing himself on our radar is outfielder Darius Hill:
Hill climbed from Double-A Tennessee to Triple-A Iowa this season and just kept hitting. The 25-year-old outfielder not only led Cubs farmhands in hits (166), but was tied with Cleveland’s Will Brennan for the most hits in all of the Minors. His .314 average led Cubs Minor Leaguers (minimum 200 at-bats) and was tied for first in all Minor League Baseball (minimum 500 at-bats). Hill ended with a 13.4 percent strikeout rate, plus nine homers, 36 doubles, five triples, 53 RBIs and 82 runs.
We talked about Hill earlier this week because he got a nod from MiLB.com as one of the Cubs’ organizational All-Stars, and it’s nice to see he’s getting lots of love for what really was an outstanding season. Hill, 25, is unlikely to be selected in December’s Rule 5 Draft, and assuming he isn’t, you can bank on him returning to Triple-A Iowa to open the 2023 season as depth for the big league team. He could very well compete for a bench job, too, but I think it’s more likely he will be among the first options for a fill-in when the inevitable injuries strike. And if he improves on his 2022 season while at Iowa? Who is to say he wouldn’t get more runway as a possible 4th/5th outfielder on the big league team.
The obligatory Matt Mervis section of links:
Minor league hitting coach Rachel Folden was recently promoted to co-minor league hitting coordinator for the Cubs (with Steven Pollakov), and she spoke with Marquee about why “it’s a good time to be a hitter in the Cubs organization.” Folden has been cited repeatedly by young players as a significant influence on their development since she arrived in 2019, so the promotion is no surprise. She talks a lot about translating data in a way that works for an individual player, and that sure seems like the biggest key in player development right now. Every organization has great equipment. Every organization has great data analysis. But the gap to bridge is in turning that stuff into real, actionable messaging for the players.
Cubs outfield prospect Ezequiel Pagan had a fantastic year at Myrtle Beach, and then went on to have a fantastic run in the WBSC U-23 tournament: