2024 Spring Training Chicago Cubs' Top Prospects (#20-11)

The Chicago Cubs have one of the most improved minor league systems in all of Major League Baseball. That didn’t happen because they dealt Cody Bellinger and Marcus Stroman at the deadline for a massive haul, it happened because of solid development at the lower levels and what appears to be a great crop of rookies from the Rule 4 Draft in June.  

The players we’ll look at in today’s post are the 20th-11th best prospects in the system and just about every player on this list has legitimate difference-making ability. There are a myriad of teenaged middle-infielders that should fight it out to be top-100 prospects in baseball by the end of the year, a couple of players that could (and should) start the year on the North Side, and a player that was in our top-five in the middle of the season last year.

Let’s dive into the list.

Number 20 

Derniche Valdez SS

Age: 17

2023 Level(s): Rookie Ball

Joined the organization via: IFA Signing in 2023

2023 Stats: 125 PA .234/.328/.477 6 HR, 12 XBH, 4/8 SB, 20 RBI, 17 R

Derniche Valdez is a player we’ve talked about a fair amount here between the mid-season top 30 prospects list and the piece we wrote about him being named the Cubs best prospect in Rookie Ball last season. The most pertinent information from that piece can be summarized here:

The scouting report on Valdez is that he’s a five-tool player (who isn’t at this age?) and that he should be able to stick at shortstop. The idea of a player that combines Starlin Castro and Hanley Ramirez’s production should be enough to get any fan salivating but the production on the field has been at least as impressive as that scouting report would have led you to hope. 

Valdez is still just 17 years old and may get a shot to be the Jefferson Rojas of the system this year, but if he continues to hit with the power he did last season he’ll likely be much higher on this list at the mid-season mark. 

Number 19 

Marino Santy LHP

Age: 21

2023 Level(s): Low-A Myrtle Beach

Joined the organization via: IFA Signing in 2020

2023 Stats: 75 IP, 3.12 ERA, 100/59 K/BB

Marino Santy is not a player that made the list at mid-season but he’s become harder to ignore. Prior to the 2023 season, he had pitched in just 40 total innings in his professional career over the 2021 and 2022 seasons but the strikeout numbers had always been pretty impressive. 

The problem Santy runs into is that he can be a bit wild, however last season he really toned it down. He went from a BB/9 rate of 9.2 in 2021 and 13.8 in 2022 to 7.1 last season while setting a new career high for K/9 of 12. He’s also cut down on his literal wild pitches from a whopping 16 in just 24.1 innings in 2021 to 8 in more than 3 times as many innings last season. His stuff should play in the bullpen at the very least but his ceiling is significantly higher than that and we should begin to see that at South Bend this season. 

Number 18 

Luis Vazquez SS

Age: 24

2023 Level(s): AA Tennessee, AAA Iowa

Joined the organization via: 14th Round Pick in the 2017 Draft

2023 Stats: 528 PA, .271/.361/.456 20 HR, 44 XBH, 10/20 SB, 54 RBI, 72 R

Luis Vazquez definitely wouldn’t have made this list last season (or any previous season for that matter). He’s a career .236/.304/.350 hitter who picked up more than half (20) of his career total (36) in homers last season. 

That being said, he had a career year last year and it begs the question: is this a player that could help the Cubs as early as this season? He hit for significant power in terms of both homers and doubles, he has good speed even if he was a little overly aggressive on the basepaths last season and he can get on base while playing solid middle-of-the-diamond defense. 

Good teams have players like Vazquez who come out of nowhere and help the major league club when things go awry. In a perfect world, Dansby Swanson and Nico Hoerner play 162 games each at shortstop and second base respectively, but in the real world, it’s nice to have a solid player like Vazquez waiting in Iowa if he’s needed. 

Number 17

Brian Kalmer 3B

Age: 23

2023 Level(s): Rookie Ball, Low-A Myrtle Beach

Joined the organization via: 18th Round Pick in the 2023 Draft

2023 Stats: 149 PA, .357/.426/.667 10 HR, 18 XBH, 0/1 SB, 42 RBI, 26 R

This man hasn’t missed a beat since going pro. He started his college career at Arizona State and transferred to Gonzaga to be an extra large fish in an extra small pond but he’s continued to eat in the professional ranks as if he were still using metal bats in the West Coast Conference. 

The 18 extra-base hits he had in just 149 plate appearances are impressive and if you extrapolated it out for a full season he would have had more than 65 extra-base hits. We wrote about him in our post-draft coverage last season and what we had to say then only holds more true today: 

Kalmer is going to be a name to keep an eye on… Personally I think calling him a third baseman is being extremely optimistic as he seems like much more of a first base/designated hitter type, but the bat seems to be good enough to carry the position.

Number 16 

Alexis Hernandez SS

Age: 19

2023 Level(s): Rookie Ball

Joined the organization via: IFA Signing in 2022

2023 Stats: 150 PA, .315/.407/.515, 3 HR, 16 XBH, 9/11 SB, 25 RBI, 25 R

This is the second Hernandez on our top 30 prospects list and he seems to have passed his brother in terms of prospect shine, at least for now. At the midpoint of last season, we said:

While he’s still in Rookie ball his K/BB ratio is impressive for a player of his age and he’s shown an ability to put the barrel on the ball with consistency for both average and power. Fangraphs also believes in his ability to stick at short long term and he could be an impact major leaguer by 2026/2027.

He didn’t have as much hype as his brother did upon signing but at some point the numbers on the stat sheet matter more than the numbers on the payroll and if the younger Hernandez can build on his success last season that 2026/2027 timeline may be a bit conservative considering his talent level. 

Number 15 

Pedro Ramirez 2B

Age: 19

2023 Level(s): Low-A Myrtle Beach

Joined the organization via: IFA Signing in 2021

2023 Stats: 414 PA, .266/.358/.404, 8 HR, 30 XBH, 17/24 SB, 54 RBI, 53 R

This list, much like the Cubs farm system, is heavy on middle-infield playing teenagers and Pedro Ramirez is one that many scouts have significantly higher on their list than we do. He played last year with Cristian Hernandez at Low-A Myrtle Beach and lapped him in just about every conceivable way. 

The difference between the instructional leagues and legitimate, organized, minor league baseball is considerable. Alexis Hernandez put up just as impressive numbers and Derniche Valdez is even younger, but Pedro Ramirez put up solid stats playing solid defense at almost two full years younger than the average age of competition at Myrtle Beach last season. He’s someone to keep an eye on for some significant helium moving forward as he had a stellar 2022 and 2021 as well. His career line is .303/.381/.450 in over 830 plate appearances. 

Number 14 

Luke Little LHP

Age: 23

2023 Level(s): High-A South Bend, AA Tennessee, AAA Iowa, MLB

Joined the organization via: 4th Round Pick in 2020 MLB Draft

2023 Stats: 63.2 IP, 2.12 ERA, 105/42 K/BB

Luke Little may legitimately be my favorite player on this list. He is a behemoth at 6’8 220 pounds and he provides something the major league club desperately needs: left-handed, high-leverage bullpen capabilities. 

Little strikes guys out and he really doesn’t walk all that many guys. Last season he pitched at three minor league levels before getting the call to the majors and in those three levels, he struck out 14.8 batters per nine innings. That’s impressive but it’s barely off of the pace that he’s had for his entire minor league career of 14.4 and less than his sterling 16.2 in his brief major league stint last season.

At 23 years old, Luke Little should not only be a top prospect in this Cubs system he could be one of the top bullpen arms in the league in just a few seasons. 

Number 13 

BJ Murray Jr. 3B

Age: 24

2023 Level(s): AA Tennessee

Joined the organization via: 15th Round Pick in 2021 MLB Draft

2023 Stats: 542 PA, .263/.382/.462 16 HR, 54 XBH, 14/17 SB, 74 RBI, 71 R 

BJ Murray hits the ball hard. Last season he had an ISO of .199 and racked up 54 extra base hits in 542 plate appearances. The idea of a third baseman who can get an extra-base hit every ten at-bats while carrying a batting average of over .260 and an OBP of over .380 is something that the Cubs haven’t had since they traded away Kris Bryant. 

Murray has been this guy since he was drafted out of Florida Atlantic. In his first season with the Cubs in 2021, he hit .286/.344/.482 and in 2022 across Low-A and High-A he hit .286/.410/.429. In 2021 Murray may have been selling out for power a little bit and the pendulum may have swung the opposite direction in 2022 as he saw his OBP skyrocket and his SLG fall a bit, but last season he seemed to have found his goldilocks zone. 

Having spent all of 2023 at AA Tennessee it seems likely that Murray will push to start at AAA Iowa and be just a short bus ride away from Wrigley if the lineup needs a little bit of extra pop.