Chicago Cubs: Alex Lange is a potential future ace

(Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)

The Chicago Cubs have gone heavy with the pitching picks over the past few years. Could Alex Lange represent the start of something special for the Cubs?

With the majority of the pieces of Theo Epstein’s rebuild of the Chicago Cubs already at the major league level, people are beginning to concede that the Cubs farm system is all but entirely depleted. But is that the case?

Sure, it’s not what it used to be, but how could it be when players like Kris Bryant, Willson Contreras, Addison Russell, Javier Baez, Kyle Schwarber, Carl Edwards. Jr., (*tries to catch breath*), Albert Almora and Ian Happ are all producing on the big league roster? Years go by and rosters around the league turn over. It’s the natural tendency in baseball, the circle of life if you will.

What sets apart successful organizations from the unsuccessful is how well the team continues to draft and develop talent, even when its major league roster is rife with former top prospects. Fortunately, the Cubs have one of the best front offices in professional sports and are ultimately in the trustworthy, proven hands of Epstein and Jed Hoyer, who restlessly work to field the best team possible while also aiming to create a sustainable infrastructure.

So far, Theo & Co. have quietly done a great job at refilling the Cubs’ pipeline with a lot of high-upside talent. One contributing factor for it going unnoticed by the baseball world could be the absence of all of the players the team has already shipped out to fortify the needs of the big league roster (most notably Gleyber Torres, Dylan Cease, Eloy Jimenez and Jeimer Candelario). Even so, the Cubs are still in a better position than most would opine.