Chicago Cubs: Delvin Zinn is progressing nicely in South Bend

It was meant to be

Professional baseball can be a strange world. With so much happening in the public eye, there is still so much occurring behind the scenes. When it comes to the MLB draft, this is precisely the case with teams making their selections. It is also what happened with Zinn and the Cubs.

During the late rounds of the 2015 MLB amateur draft, Chicago selected shortstop Zinn out of Pontotoc High School in Mississippi. Zinn instead geared up for college and attended Mississippi State University before transferring to Itawamba Community College in Fulton, Mississippi.

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Failing to sign Zinn in 2015 did not stop the Cubs from giving it another college try. The very next year Zinn once again landed in Chicago’s lap, this time in the 23rd round. He signed for $100,000 and the rest, as they say, is history. Just kidding, it was only the beginning.

Zinn reported to the Cubs’ Rookie league as a 19-year-old in 2016. There, he played in 11 games registering 33 plate appearances and slashing an unimpressive .182/.206/.212 with a disastrous 35.3% strikeout rate. Nevertheless, the following season Zinn rebounded nicely seeing both an uptick in games and production.

During his second year at Rookie-level ball, Zinn improved across the board by slashing .228/.302/.298 while raising his walk rate and lowering his strikeout rate. He also saw a quick jump in both his wOBA and wRC+. That year, Zinn played in 40 games and registered 128 plate appearances, a sure uptick from the following season. Slowly but surely, Zinn was beginning to come on strong however the best was still yet to come.