Take a peak at the latest MLB.com Chicago Cubs prospect rankings

Chicago Cubs: Top 10 establishes new top prospect, adds 2021 first-rounder

MLB.com’s top-10 prospect list is as follows:

1. Brennen Davis (OF) – AA – 21 years old
2. Brailyn Marquez (LHP) – AA (Injured) – 22 years old
3. Cristian Hernandez (SS) – ACL Rookie Ball – 17 years old
4. Miguel Amaya (C) – AA (Injured) – 22 years old
5. Pete Crow-Armstrong (OF) – A (Injured) – 19 years old
6. Jordan Wicks (LHP) – 2021 Draft – 21 years old
7. Ed Howard (SS) – A – 19 years old
8. Reginald Preciado (INF) – ACL Rookie Ball – 18 years old
9. Owen Caissie (OF) – ACL Rookie Ball – 19 years old
10. 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.