Chicago Cubs: Miguel Amaya dominating in Arizona Fall League

Chicago Cubs: Amaya turning heads in the Arizona Fall League

Somehow, Amaya is just 20 years old. It seems like we’ve been talking about this kid for years (which, we have – he entered the system at 17 years old) – but he’s far from reaching his ceiling.

Physically, he’s going to continue to develop. But with more and more young 20-somethings stealing the show across Major League Baseball, you’d really like to see him take that next step in his development – and we might be witnessing that in the Arizona Fall League.

Through October 6, Amaya is doing a lot of good things at the plate with a .321/.424/.393 across 28 at-bats. He’s drawn five walk to just seven strikeouts and with runners on, he’s hitting .438. Granted,  this is a small sample size – but you love to see him putting up these kind of numbers after another fairly lackluster offensive campaign in the minors.

Regardless of his so-so showing this year with High-A Myrtle Beach, Amaya ranked as the Cubs’ second-best prospect, according to Baseball America (subscription required), who had this to say about the young backstop in their latest organizational Top 30 rankings.

"Amaya’s development has been a slow burn, but he’s continued to gain strength in an effort to prove he’ll have what it takes to be an asset on both offense and defense. He’s also been of the Cubs’ representative at the last two Futures Games."

A slow burn is the perfect way to describe what we’ve gotten to this point. But we could be reaching a critical turning point for the 20-year-old talent.