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Take a peak at the latest MLB.com Chicago Cubs prospect rankings
There are a lot of varying opinions on the Chicago Cubs farm system among baseball outlets. MLB.com bases their rankings on a point system and has the Cubs system 24th in baseball, while FanGraphs ranks them much higher at eight. This can have fans scratching their heads and wondering why the major difference?
The biggest reason to note is that the Cubs have a ton of younger prospects in the ACL (rookie) league and in A-ball. There is a lot of growing to be done with these prospects and if they can keep going, they will grow in rankings, thus seeing the farm system shoot up in the overall rankings. This is if all (or a majority) goes well with development of course.
FanGraphs, like most other outlets, evaluate prospects a little differently. So it is not time to panic yet with MLB.com’s overall ranking of the Cubs farm. This next phase will require some patience and might not go as fast as some hope. Better they do it right than rush in the end.
On August 20, MLB.com updated its prospect rankings for each team. They now have updated who they feel are the Cubs top-30 prospects. This now takes in account the 2021 draft picks, and which guys are now considered within the top-30 early on. For this list we will explore the current top-10 prospects on the team according to MLB.com in detail, and other notes about the top-30.
Chicago Cubs: Top 10 establishes new top prospect, adds 2021 first-rounder
MLB.com’s top-10 prospect list is as follows:
- Brennen Davis (OF) – AA – 21 years old
- Brailyn Marquez (LHP) – AA (Injured) – 22 years old
- Cristian Hernandez (SS) – ACL Rookie Ball – 17 years old
- Miguel Amaya (C) – AA (Injured) – 22 years old
- Pete Crow-Armstrong (OF) – A (Injured) – 19 years old
- Jordan Wicks (LHP) – 2021 Draft – 21 years old
- Ed Howard (SS) – A – 19 years old
- Reginald Preciado (INF) – ACL Rookie Ball – 18 years old
- Owen Caissie (OF) – ACL Rookie Ball – 19 years old
- Kohl Franklin (RHP) – A – (Not pitched in 2021) 21 years old
NOTE: The average age for this group is 19.9 years old and only three of them have made it as high as Double-A. That is how young (and deep) the farm is despite the overall ranking.
The names on the list should not be overly surprising for those following the Cubs farm the past year or so. Brennen Davis is the unquestioned number one prospect, and the one MLB.com currently has in the top-100 overall. Brailyn Marquez, despite not playing in 2021 due to COVID and injury issues, is still the second-overall prospect in the system. Sadly this has stunted his growth, but hopefully he will be good to go in 2022.
Cristian Hernandez is only 17 with less than 25 games under his belt but is already ranked third. In his first 22 games he hit two home runs and a .225/.337/.310 slash, right now the potential from this kid is really high and it will be exciting to watch him grow. Miguel Amaya has not played since early June as he has battled injury, and was originally expected to potentially this year, but that will have to wait. Pete Crow-Armstrong, who came over in the Javier Baez trade, will also have to wait until 2022 but his ability to hit and field has a lot of people high on him.
Really nice to see 2021 first-round pick Jordan Wicks on the list now. The southpaw out of Kansas State is looked at to be a future part of the Cubs rotation, and will hopefully be up sooner than later with an ETA around 2023. He has been praised for his ability to command the strikezone and use offspeed and movement to get outs. He could climb even higher in the rankings when he gets his pro career started.
Ed Howard, the first pick of the team in 2020, is still considered one of the team’s top, though some value is sliding a bit with his slow start at the plate. He is very athletic and has made some great defensive plays at short, but the hitting needs a lot of work. Cannot write him off yet, being only 19 and not played his senior year due to COVID. The skills are there.
It would really be awesome to see Reginald Preciado and Owen Caissie keep climbing up. The two are tearing the cover off the ball in the ACL. Preciado has a .350/.404/.512 slash and 135 wRC+ while Caissie has six home runs with a .340/.474/.585 slash and a 173 wRC+. Each big day in the box score eases the sting of the Yu Darvish trade. We want to see these guys get promoted ASAP! Lastly, Kohl Franklin is in the top-10 despite not pitching yet in 2021. He was doing very well in A-Ball in 2019 as he sported a 2.36 ERA, 1.2 WHIP and 11.1 K/9 between low-A and high-A that season.
Chicago Cubs: Many deadline acquisitions fall just outside the team’s top 10
Alexander Canario, who is currently in South Bend (High-A) just missed the top-10 cut and is ranked 12th in the Cubs system by MLB.com. Canario started his Cubs organization tenure smoking hot his first week or so with South Bend. The 21-year old is hit .282/.320/.507 with four home runs and 122 wRC+ in his first 17 games.
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Kevin Alcantara, who came over in the Rizzo trade, is ranked 16th in the system and has had himself a good start. He sports a 130 wRC+ in 12 games so far with the Cubs organization (Rookie ball). Worth noting Alcantara is the second-ranked prospect in the system by FanGraphs and the 116th prospect overall at 19 years old.
Justin Steele, who has 3.22 ERA, 10.9 K/9 and 4.4 BB/9 in 22 1/3 innings as both a reliever and starter for the Cubs is still considered a prospect and ranked 19th in the system.
Spots 22 and 23 are made up of Christian Franklin, an outfielder who was taken in the fourth round of this year’s draft, and Greg Deichmann. Again, it is nice to see more of the most recent picks make the top-30 list, as the righthanded outfielder from the University of Arkansas has just begun his ACL tenure. Franklin in NCAA hit .288/.402/.499 with 22 homers and 27 doubles in 141 games.
Christopher Morel (21st), Chase Strumpf (24th), Jordan Nwogu (27th) and Manny Rodriguez (currently playing in the majors) are all in the top-30 as well.
Next. How are the core faring in new cities?. dark
Keeping an eye on the farm will be interesting over the next few weeks. With the MiLB season winding down, we can soon get a better idea of what these guys will be doing in the Fall and Winter and where they can potentially start in 2022. Embrace the rebuild, folks.