Some Chicago Cubs prospect bits for your Friday afternoon …
- It was a big pitching night for the Cubs in the Arizona Fall League, with all of Grant Kipp, Sam Thorensen, Vince Reilly, and Shane Marshall getting into the game. Not a bad three-inning start for Kipp, who was followed by Thorensen with a little wildness. Reilly got just one batter (strikeout), while Marshall ultimately gave up a three-run homer to Robert Hassell III.
- Speaking of Reilly, he was MLB Pipeline’s sleeper pick for the Cubs in the AFL:
“Cubs: Vince Reilly, RHP
Reilly went undrafted in 2022 after three years of college at Hawaii and Grand Canyon, then signed with the Athletics and pitched just 4 2/3 innings before getting released in June 2023. Picked up by the Cubs this March, he displayed a 93-98 mph fastball and promising slider and splitter while posting a 3.88 ERA, .213 average-against and 52/16 K/BB ratio in 53 1/3 innings.”
- Reilly, 23, put up good numbers at Myrtle Beach in a relief-only role, though that’s a friendly place to pitch, and the strikeout rate (23.2%) was not what you’d want to see from a college pitcher relieving at Low-A. That said, if you chop off a disastrous first appearance on the season, his numbers were even more impressive: 3.23 ERA, 2.96 FIP, 23.9% K, 6.4% BB. I’d be curious to know why the A’s would release him so quickly after paying $100,000 to sign him, and all the more curious if he’s showing 98 mph and a couple good secondaries. Was something amiss last year, and it was with the Cubs that he really found those pitches? Or was it just that he’s a smaller guy and the A’s felt it just wouldn’t translate? Still, seems so quick. Anyway, seems like this fall is a bit of a test for him in advance of the Cubs deciding how quickly to push him next year to find out if he can actually be a guy.
- The Cubs did not land any prospects on BA’s ranking of top Dominican Summer League prospects this year, but they did get a couple mentions from Ben Badler here. Outfield prospect Robin Ortiz (17 and already 6’4″ 200 lbs, hit .276/.390/.403/118 wRC+ in the DSL) gets compliments for his size and power, and righty Yander Maria gets a full paragraph:
“Most of the players we’ve focused on so far have been hitters, so let’s close with a young pitching prospect who showed impressive stuff this season. Maria, 17, is 6-foot-4, 200 pounds and signed out of the Dominican Republic in January for $200,000. Even on signing day, that looked like a great value for the Cubs, as Maria had already gone from a pitcher who was in the upper-80s early in 2023 and came into signing day with a fastball that reached the mid-90s. He held that velocity in the DSL over starts of mostly 2-4 innings, pitching at 90-94 mph and reaching 96 mph, with the arm speed and physical projection to one day throw in the upper-90s. He complements a big fastball for his age with a low-to-mid 80s slider with tight spin (typically in the 2,500-2,800 rpm range) and tight lateral break across the zone that misses bats. Like most pitchers at this level, he hasn’t thrown much of a changeup yet, so that pitch will be a focus as he moves up the ladder. Maria posted a 3.98 ERA in 31.1 innings with 34 strikeouts and 24 walks, which included a few rocky outings early on, but he held down a 1.46 ERA over his final eight starts.”
- I don’t even care about the numbers at all for a 17-year-old pitcher. Maria is huge, he can already hit the mid-90s with his fastball, and he has a huge spin slider. I’m in. That’s really all I need to hear. Huge on-the-radar guy for 2025, when he very well could pitch in the Arizona Complex League at 18. (And if I did care about the numbers, I’d reiterate what Badler pointed out: Maria got blown up over his first four outings, but then dominated the rest of the season.)
- More praise for Jonathon Long, who is identified by RoboScout as an underrated hitting prospect, NOT because of his enormous numbers this year, but instead because of the numbers under the hood. Short version? He makes incredibly good contact (his contact quality is compared favorably to, among others, the guy who was drafted eight rounds ahead of him by the Cubs last year, Matt Shaw).