2 former Cubs prospects flourishing with their new team, 2 who have cratered

With the trade deadline just over a month away (and Jed Hoyer's front office already getting some deals done), the Chicago Cubs are sure to be swinging plenty of trades in the coming weeks. Whether they're looking to buy another starting pitcher or two to gear up for the stretch run or they fall out of the race and find themselves shopping someone like Seiya Suzuki, there will be prospects shuffling in or out of the Cubs farm system in the near future.

That makes now as good of a time as any to reflect on some trades the Cubs have made in the past few years. Hoyer's front office has been quite active when it comes to trading prospects since returning to contention in 2023, and those trades have seen a number of prospects depart the Cubs' system. That's the cost of doing business, and while some of those players have found real success after leaving, others have struggled. Which prospects fall into each camp?

Owen Caissie isn't making Cubs fans miss him just yet

Caissie is the only prospect on this list who actually made his big league debut as a member of the Cubs. He got into 12 games last year where he collected five hits and swatted his first MLB home run before he was shipped to the Marlins during the offseason as part of the package the Cubs gave up to acquire Edward Cabrera. Caissie was the centerpiece of Miami's haul for Cabrera, and his big-time power potential had made him a consensus top 100 prospect in the past.

Perhaps that pedigree could still develop into results at some point, but it simply hasn't done so yet. Caissie is now more than 200 plate appearances into his Marlins career, and he's not yet even reached league average by wRC+. Both Fangraphs and Baseball Reference consider him to have been worth negative WAR, and his strikeout rate isn't far off of 40%. It's been a tough start to Caissie's first year in Miami, although a recent homer off a lefty might be a sign of better days ahead.

Edgardo De Leon might be the real centerpiece of the Edward Cabrera trade

While Caissie has yet to live up to his ceiling, he wasn't the only prospect the Cubs shipped out to Miami to land Cabrera. The least-discussed piece of the deal at the time was infielder Edgardo De Leon, a teenage prospect hailing from the Dominican Republic who had only just made his stateside debut with the Cubs' complex league affiliate last year. De Leon is limited to the corner infield spots and wasn't a consensus top 100 prospect, but his work since arriving in Miami should turn heads.

De Leon started the year with the Marlins' rookie league affiliated in Florida, but exploded with nine extra-base hits and an OPS north of 1.000 across his first 22 games. That was more than enough to earn him a promotion to Single-A, and while he's only just starting to get his footing at that new level he's clubbed another three homers in ten games since the promotion. There's clearly big potential in De Leon's bat, and he could find himself in the upper minors before his 21st birthday at this rate.

Jackson Ferris is starting to look like a rare bust for the Dodgers

Shortly after they were drafted, Cade Horton and Jackson Ferris were often looked at in tandem with each other by Cubs fans and prospect evaluators. That was understandable, seeing as the Cubs went under slot in the first round with Horton in part so that they could lure in Ferris with the promise of a hefty bonus come the following round. While Horton's career started with a bang in Chicago and figures to be bright once he gets healthy, Ferris has not fared quite as well since he left the Cubs.

Traded to the Dodgers prior to the 2024 season as part of the package surrendered to acquire Michael Busch, Ferris has generally been viewed as a prospect with a lot of potential in a loaded Dodgers system. That's likely to be changing with his performance this season, however. Ferris has made ten starts for the Dodgers' Triple-A affiliate in Oklahoma City, and calling those starts ugly would be an understatement.

A 7.00 ERA and a walk rate approaching his strikeout rate just isn't going to cut it for the 22-year-old lefty, and while the Dodgers are certainly willing to be patient with their pitching prospects Ferris has a long way to go before he's ready to break into a star-studded rotation that already includes Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. If Ferris was performing better, perhaps Cubs fans wouldn't be quite as interested in recreating the Busch deal with another aging Dodgers prospect.

Zyhir Hope is the one who got away for the Cubs and Jed Hoyer

On the other hand, the Cubs might want to think twice about making deals with the devil in the NL West. While the Dodgers seem to have struck out on the headliner in the return for Busch, the secondary piece has found another gear thanks to their player development system. Outfield prospect Zyhir Hope has gone from a little-known 11th-round pick in Chicago to a blue chip prospect with Los Angeles.

Hope is now 21 years old and hard at work at Double-A in search of his next promotion up the minor league ladder. Hope has flashed high on-base percentages, 25-steal potential, and sneaky power throughout his time in the minor leagues. He's gotten off to a bit of a slower start this year by his standards, but that's still good for a 111 wRC+, 13 homers, and ten steals across the first half of his season with the Tulsa Drillers.

It seems likely that Hope will be on his way to Triple-A before the end of the year, especially after a recent two-homer showing drew plenty of attention around the league. That'll put him on the cusp of the majors for 2027, which only serves to twist the knife further for Cubs fans who are already worried about how the Cubs can expect to replace both Suzuki and Ian Happ in the outfield corners next year. If Hope were still in the fold, he'd surely be penciled into one of those spots.

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