NEWSLETTER
Today was the day when a large swath of top Chicago Cubs prospects were sent out from Major League camp. “Cut” always sounds so harsh in this context, since it’s not like these guy performed poorly or whatever. We’re not yet to the part of the spring where guys are getting cut who were otherwise very close to making the Opening Day roster.
Anywho, here are the 10 players heading out to minor league spring training (the difference in language is just a matter of guys on the 40-man roster versus guys not yet on the 40-man roster):
Ultimately, guys like PCA and Davis were not going to make the Opening Day roster. This has all been about continuing to get them exposure to big league players, to big league opposition, and to the big league coaching staff. We know they will be important to the team in the long run, but there is a lot still to work on in the minors for each.
But if you told me both would be up with the big league team at some point this season, I would not be absolutely shocked.
As for many of the others, again, this was all about the experience. It can be very valuable to these guys to get in some big league Spring Training time before their season starts, giving them not only a sense of what it’s like to operate like a Major League player, but also maybe a sense of some things they need to work on.
Oh, also: just because these guys have now been sent to minor league camp, that doesn’t mean they might not still appear periodically in Cactus League games.
As for the levels to which these players have been optioned, there is not a perfect 1-to-1 correlation between your level for Spring Training purposes and your opening assignment when the minor league season gets underway. Sometimes guy are with a higher level for camp, and then ultimately open the season at a lower level (rarely goes in the other direction, but not impossible). So I wouldn’t read TOO much into that part, but it does kind of track that each of Brown, Jensen, and Amaya might not open the season at Triple-A. There are still things to work on for each, and not necessarily a TON of time spent at Double-A.
Still 30 names to go, by the way, with big league camp at 56 players.
