Chicago Cubs: Bryce Ball may be the organization’s most underrated prospect

This year’s trade deadline brought an abundance of new faces to the Chicago Cubs organization, as well as some major league talent, and the team’s future now seems much brighter than it did just months ago. While much has been made of guys like Pete Crow-Armstrong, Alexander Canario and Nick Madrigal, other prospects have become something of an afterthought.

Many lesser-hyped prospects have started to catch fire as well. Guys like Greg Deichmann and Yohendrick Pinango have been raking as of late, but it hasn’t gotten a ton of notice. This happens with a lot of minor leaguers, but it’s especially true in the case of Bryce Ball.

Acquired from the Braves in exchange for Joc Pederson, Ball has supremely intriguing offensive potential and has been getting great results as of late. Ball, who is 23 and was drafted in 2019 out of Dallas Baptist University, bats left-handed, has fantastic discipline, and, according to Fangraphs, 70-grade raw power – an enticing thought.

The drawbacks to Ball are similar to what is seen in many players in today’s game. Ball struggles to make contact and strikes out a lot. However, with his penchant for getting on base and extreme power, to boot, this is something the Cubs can live with.

Of course, potential can only carry you so far. At a certain point, the Cubs had to start seeing results, and early on in the year, they were not there for Ball. However, since he has gotten acclimated to his new organization, the results have finally been there for Ball.

Chicago Cubs: 2022 will be a key development year for Bryce Ball

Lately, Ball has been trending in the right direction – with a pair of three-hit games already in September –  and it’s important to remember that this is still just his second year playing minor league baseball, so there is still plenty of refinement that can be done. If the Cubs could get Ball to cut down just a tad on his strikeouts, there are makings of a really good first baseman.

Despite all of this really intriguing potential, however, he doesn’t get much hype from national prospect sites. He’s not in the Cubs’ top 30 according to MLB Pipeline and most people don’t seem to think much of him. Fangraphs does have him at 24 in their Cubs prospect rankings, but that’s about as high as the praise gets.

While you may not see Ball topping any lists of the Cubs’ top prospects, that doesn’t mean he’s someone who you should forget about. Ball no doubt has the potential to be a very productive player, and he’s flashing that potential with the Cubs.