Cubs Prospect Notes: Alcántara, Kilian, Wesneski, PCA, Perlaza, Estrada, Sanders, More

Feb 21, 2023

One more month and one more week. That’s when the minor league season kicks off. Sure, the big league season will get most of the oxygen, but I am very excited to see another year of Cubs prospects developing …

Random and fun fact – Cubs outfield prospect Kevin Alcántara is literally the youngest player in baseball on a 40-man roster:

Top 2⃣5⃣ youngest players on MLB 40-man rosters, as of today.

🥇 Kevin Alcantara #Cubs 20.221
🥈 Warming Bernbel #Rockies 20.257
🥉 Jonatan Clase #Mariners 20.271https://t.co/HfE4JttymM pic.twitter.com/5vIaIN38yp— TheBaseballCube.com ⚾️ (@theBaseballCube) February 19, 2023

Speaking of Alcántara, good gravy the eyes-on praise he was getting from Lance Brozdowski and Andy Martinez in their podcast at Marquee. I mean, Brozdowski – who is not a thoughtless homer – was saying there’s a non-zero chance Alcántara could appear in the BIG LEAGUES this year. The gist was that Alcántara, who has filled out more this offseason, already makes big league caliber contact, and it’s conceivable that he’s just raking too much out of the gate at South Bend that he heads up to Double-A Tennessee very quickly. From there, you just don’t know.

Caleb Kilian has become almost an afterthought among Cubs upper level pitching prospects, which is obviously an overcorrection. Yes, we probably got too high on him after his dominant run in the second half last year and especially in the Arizona Fall League, but the pitches and the physical talent are still there to be a quality big league starting pitcher. He just had some serious work to do in pairing his improved stuff with his previously-excellent command, and the Cubs referenced some work he had to do in how he used his lower half (I’m not advanced enough to really be able to eyeball that kind of thing).

Just by watching this video, it's very obvious that Kilian has put in some major work to clean up his delivery.

So much more fluid and loose than what we saw at the end of last year. https://t.co/zTojl5NDX7— Alex Cohen (@voiceofcohen) February 21, 2023

Perhaps this is okay to serve as a third data point, from right before any issues were a concern (though I think they’d maybe poked their head out a bit). I’ll let others weigh in on big differences they’re spotting — a little more focus on balance at leg block? — as I just 🤞🤞. https://t.co/LwQFXpB17k— Cubs Prospects – Bryan Smith (@cubprospects) February 21, 2023

Hayden Wesneski knows he can’t live on his exceptional slider alone, so he’s trying to make his four-seam fastball a little more playable (and the Cubs do indeed love cut-ride fastballs):

Cut-ride fastballs. Love Wesneski attempting to make those adjustments. It doesn’t have to be his primary FB weapon, but Cubs know how to game plan for those. https://t.co/wUfUy9dnax— Greg Zumach (@IvyFutures) February 20, 2023

I would say this is high praise, given that Marcus Stroman knows what a big league hitter looks like:

Need PCA in the big leagues ASAP! https://t.co/5x9codz7tK
— Marcus Stroman (@STR0) February 20, 2023

Pete Crow-Armstrong wants to be a sponge during his first big league camp: “My main goal is to soak up as much as I can. My locker is next to Happ, I’ve been blessed with a lot of knowledge around me just have to take it all in.” #Cubs @WGNNews @GNSportsTV pic.twitter.com/wMmYKtc2zy— Josh Frydman (@Josh_Frydman) February 15, 2023

Uh, hello Yonathan Perlaza:

#Cubs prospect Yonathan Perlaza is HUGE 😳

(📸: @ScottyChags) pic.twitter.com/iOuw2uqy5x
— Cubs Zone (@CubsZone) February 19, 2023

Perlaza, a switch-hitting 24-year-old outfielder, hit .255/.358/.491/122 wRC+ last year at Double-A, with 23 HR, and 15 SB. He is in camp on a non-roster invite, and seems very likely to head to Triple-A Iowa to open the season. He’ll have to hit a whole lot at Iowa to profile as a (mostly) corner outfielder, but he’s really quite talented.

Bryan talking up one of the Cubs’ lesser-known IFA prospects from last year’s class:

With the 28th pick in the Cubs prospect draft, ⁦@cubprospects⁩ selects…

Jefferson Rojas?!

Listen to his explanation below and the full episode here: https://t.co/8EogdZbtj7 pic.twitter.com/kFVv0ijV0Y— Greg Huss (@OutOfTheVines) February 20, 2023

This is a really nice and fun interview with Cubs relief prospect Jeremiah Estrada:

Had a fun, wide-ranging chat with @Cubs relief pitcher Jeremiah Estrada who is about to embark on an important Spring Training. Opening-day roster is the goal. https://t.co/CG1WDds2Sj @realcubsinsider @BleacherNation @NBCSCubs @Jeremiah13Estra— Shad Powers (@shad_powers) February 15, 2023

I’m not sure Estrada will make the Opening Day bullpen because it’s such a crowded group and he’s got options left, but nobody is going to rule it out. His fastball – when it’s right – is among the best in baseball, and he’s got a wipeout slider to go with it. Estrada at his best is easily one of the eight best relief options for the Cubs. But we know he’ll be up at some point this year no matter what, and if the Cubs feel like there is still something for him to work on at Iowa, I wouldn’t take it as an insult if he doesn’t make the team out of camp. He did rise all the way from High-A to the big leagues last year, making just six appearances at Triple-A.

Speaking of relief prospects we could see in Chicago this year:

My favorite pitch of live BP at #Cubs camp today was this Cam Sanders splitter.

Threw it only 5-10% of the time last year, primarily to LHH, but specs were great: ~86mph, ~14” vertical separation from fastball, around 1500 rpm. 🔥

🎥: @ScottyChags pic.twitter.com/fE0cKDQOAq— Lance Brozdowski (@LanceBroz) February 19, 2023

Now that Sanders is (presumably) fully converted to relief, I wonder if we’ll see a real breakout. The live fastball is there for him, and now it’s just a question of the secondaries and the command.

written by

Brett Taylor

Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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Cubs Prospect Notes: Alcántara, Kilian, Wesneski, PCA, Perlaza, Estrada, Sanders, More

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