Chicago Cubs’ Top-100 Prospect All-Star roster

On Tuesday, Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper tweeted out a fun idea for baseball fans: attempt to build an All-Star roster using only a teams Top-100 prospects of all time. Well, here’s our results.

Catcher – Willson Contreras, Kyle Schwarber

Willson Contreras is on his way to becoming the best catcher in Major League Baseball. Surprisingly, Contreras signed with the Chicago Cubs out of Venezuela as a third baseman for $850,000 in 2009. Furthermore, it was not until 2012 when he first appeared behind the dish. He caught 311.1 innings that year for Peoria, throwing out 23 of 26 would be base stealers.

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Fast forwarding four years, Contreras has been worth 5.7 Wins Above Replacement in his two major league seasons. Contreras will turn 26 this year, at the prime of his career which is why he is a no-brainer for this roster.

Kyle Schwarber falls on the opposite side of the spectrum from Contreras. Chicago made Schwarber the No.4 overall selection in the 2014 draft, as a catcher. Schwarber spent his minor league career as the Cubs backstop and, after working his way up, caught 21 games for the Cubs in 2015.

Cubs fans, and the Cubs for that matter, really have not seen the potential of Schwarber since they drafted him. Schwarber missed the 2016 regular season with a torn ACL, and upon his return, the team has moved him to left field. In 2017 he slashed .211/.315/.467 with 30 home runs and produced 1.5 Wins Above Replacement. The hope is that this upcoming season can indeed be a breakout campaign for him.