NEWSLETTER
As part of his prospects ranking week at ESPN, Kiley McDaniel dropped a top-X-number-of-prospects list for each organization, essentially ranking all 40-grade prospects or better. The Cubs had the 5th most 40-grade prospects or more, which is about what you’d expect from a particularly deep, well-ranked system (McDaniel has the Cubs as the second best farm system in baseball, behind only the behemoth Orioles).
McDaniel includes a write-up of the system, so you’re going to want to head over to ESPN to check out his thoughts. The list:
- Pete Crow-Armstrong, CF, 55 FV (18th on the Top 100)
- Cade Horton, RHP, 55 FV (30)
- Matt Shaw, 2B, 55 FV (37)
- Jordan Wicks, LHP, 55 FV (41)
- Owen Caissie, RF, 55 FV (43)
- Kevin Alcantara, CF, 50 FV (103)
- Michael Busch, 3B, 50 FV (118)
- James Triantos, 2B, 45+ FV (121)
- Ben Brown, RHP, 45+ FV (161)
- Moises Ballesteros, C, 45+ FV (166)
- Jefferson Rojas, SS, 45 FV
- Cristian Hernandez, SS, 45 FV
- Fernando Cruz, SS, 40+ FV
- Alexander Canario, RF, 40+ FV
- Caleb Kilian, RHP, 40+ FV
- Haydn McGeary, 1B, 40 FV
- Michael Arias, RHP, 40 FV
- Jaxon Wiggins, RHP, 40 FV
- Luke Little, LHP, 40 FV
- Brandon Birdsell, RHP, 40 FV
- Will Sanders, RHP, 40 FV
- Josh Rivera, SS, 40 FV
- Brennen Davis, RF, 40 FV
- Michael Carico, C, 40 FV
- Porter Hodge, RHP, 40 FV
- Derniche Valdez, SS, 40 FV
- Matt Mervis, 1B, 40 FV
- B.J. Murray Jr., 1B, 40 FV
- Luis Vazquez, SS, 40 FV
- Zachary Leigh, RHP, 40 FV
- Nazier Mule, RHP, 40 FV
- Riley Martin, LHP, 40 FV
- Drew Gray, LHP, 40 FV
As you can see, the Cubs actually had a trio of prospects who only just missed McDaniel’s top-100, and another two who would be in the top-166. The top-quality prospects in this farm system represent a strong group.
Some of the individual rankings stuff is a bit of a surprise – Cristian Hernández and Caleb Kilian didn’t really fall much after their disappointing 2023 seasons, B.J. Murray Jr. and Drew Gray seem way too low for me, where’s Pedro Ramirez, Fernando Cruz is WAY up there for a recent IFA signing, Derniche Valdez is similarly getting a lot of love, Josh Rivera and Will Sanders and Michael Carico very well regarded 2023 draft picks, and more.
It’s definitely an interesting mix that won’t necessarily match the other lists out there – though the top-11 group is likely to be the same names to almost every service, albeit with the order shuffled around. Those are, for me at least, the pretty clear 11 best prospects in the system.
