Chicago Cubs: Prospect Oscar De La Cruz has big league stuff

Chicago Cubs prospect Oscar De La Cruz is a physical presence on the mound. Standing at 6’4” and 200 pounds, he has a ton of room to fill out. Cruz is one of the Cubs most projectable arms in their minor league system at the age of 21. A former infielder turned pitcher, he’s a great athlete with an extremely live arm.

Signed in 2012 by the Cubs out of the Dominican Republic, the former shortstop didn’t become a household name on the Cubs prospect list until 2015. Thanks to a powerful heater and a quality curveball, De La Cruz has endured success in both low-A Eugene and Class-A South Bend. Most recently last year, Cruz tossed 27.2 innings for South Bend with a 3.25 ERA, along with 35 punch outs. He held opposing batters to  a .218 batting average.

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What he brings to the table

Being a former infielder, he is athletic enough to learn and pick up tendencies on the mound that could help his performance. Cruz has clean and fluid mechanics on the bump, and a very quick arm. His fastball sits in the 92-94 range, but cranks it up to 97 on a regular basis. It’s an effortless delivery too, which tells me that Cruz could be a guy in the future who could definitely be a starter for the Cubs.

The fastball has a great downhill plane since he’s a big guy. From watching video of Cruz pitching, i noticed the heater has great life, and some nice arm side tail. If he can bust right-handed hitters in with the fastball, Cruz can definitely break some bats thanks to the natural movement of the pitch.

The curveball impressed me. It has a very tight spin, and he throws it fairly hard in the low 80’s. When he gets out front with it and really pulls it down, it’s got a nice 12 to 6 drop on it. It’s already been labelled as a plus pitch, when it’s consistent. If he tends to get behind it and not really get out front with the pitch, it can get loopy and hang in the zone.

The change up looks like the one pitch Cruz will have to work on if he wants to be a big league starter. What separates a lot of great big league starters and relievers, is the ability to have a solid change up and curveball as a starter. Right now he doesn’t possess the ability to locate the pitch down in the zone. Sometimes it tends to stay up in the zone, which results in the pitch getting hit.

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Bright future

The future looks bright for Oscar De La Cruz. His physical attributes are an imposing figure on the mound. He has the potential to be a big league starter one day. The 21 year old Dominican is still growing, too. That means he could fill out even more, and you could see Cruz sitting in the mid 90’s with the fastball in no time. Along with a solid curveball and change up in the works, the sky is the limit for Oscar De La Cruz.