4 under the radar Cubs prospects to watch in the Spring Breakout Game

The Chicago Cubs have one of the deepest farm systems in all of baseball while simultaneously having an outrageous amount of top-tier talent on top of that and that has never been more evident than when the Spring Breakout rosters were released.

The Cubs will be fielding arguably the strongest roster from top to bottom despite six of their top 15 prospects not being on the team.

If you’re on a Chicago Cubs website like this one you already know that you should be excited when Pete Crow-Armstrong, Matt Shaw, Owen Caissie, and Kevin Alcantara come to the plate or when Cade Horton takes the mound so that’s not what this piece is going to be about.

Instead, we’re going to look at some unde- the-radar players who are going to get an opportunity to shine in this showcase as well as one bonus player that we’re excited to see in next year’s game.

The Corner Infielders

BJ Murray 3B

We recently wrote about BJ Murray and his ability to win everywhere he goes. That will likely continue in this showcase. In fact it wouldn’t shock me if this game (that means nothing whatsoever to the current or future success of either team involved) hinges on a play that Murray makes.

Beyond Murray’s ability to win, the reason that both he and Haydn McGeary are players worth watching is because they occupy the positions with the greatest question marks heading into the season and they have the ability to provide those questions with answers.

If the season started today the Cubs would use some combination of:

- Christopher Morel, whose struggles in the field are well-documented and could derail an otherwise incredible team defense.
- Nick Madrigal, who is dealing with the same hamstring problems that have had him limp to mediocre seasons seemingly every year.
- Patrick Wisdom, who barely got over the Mendoza line last season by batting .205 which is somehow worse than his 2022 batting average of .207.

Obviously, that’s not ideal, so having a third baseman at AAA Iowa who had 54 extra-base hits in 2023 while leading all Cubs’ prospects in on-base percentage the year before is a fantastic luxury. If Murray starts the season hot and third base continues to look like a position of need, it wouldn’t be shocking to see him at Wrigley by the All-Star Break.

Haydn McGeary 1B

Much like Murray, McGeary occupies a position of need for the Cubs and he’ll likely start the season in AAA along with him. MLB Pipeline had him as the Cubs’ 21st best prospect and we had him at 18, but more impressive than that is that they also had him ranked as one of the ten best first base prospects in all of baseball.

McGeary rakes. That’s all there is to it. Like Murray, he was a 15th-round draft pick and not much was expected of him, but since joining the Cubs he’s hit at every level. Last season at AA Tennessee he hit .301/.415/.487. 

There’s reason to believe that he hasn’t reached his peak power production and getting out of AA where the pitchers have a bit of an advantage by using the pre-tacked baseballs we may start to see that power surge in AAA Iowa to start the season.

With Matt Mervis not on the roster due to major league service time, it looks like McGeary will draw the start and play most, if not all, of the game at first base so it should give us a really good look at what we can expect for years to come. 

The Middle Infielders

Jefferson Rojas SS

Rojas may be the most interesting prospect in the system as we enter the 2024 season. Compared to the rest of the league the Cubs tend to be very conservative when it comes to prospect promotion but Rojas appears to be the exception.

As an 18-year-old he hit .266/.342/.400 with seven homers and 13 stolen bases at multiple levels including full-season ball. There’s a possibility that he’ll start the season in High-A South Bend which would put him on track to make his MLB debut right around his 20th birthday.

There’s obviously a lot of room for change here. Ed Howard warranted the Cubs’ selecting him in the first round as an 18-year-old and since then he’s struggled in the Cubs’ organization (although we’ll get a chance to see him in this showcase as well). That being said, Howard was playing against amateur competition and Rojas has been succeeding against professionals so the sky truly is the limit.

I wouldn’t expect Rojas to start in this game with Murray likely getting the nod at third, Matt Shaw at shortstop, and James Triantos at second base, but he should at least get a couple of at-bats and a couple of innings in the field and it will be many fans’ first opportunity to see him show off his electric toolset. There’s a very real possibility that he is the Cubs’ top prospect going into the 2025 MLB season. 

Bonus Pick for this game in 2025/2026 Fernando Cruz SS

This is a showcase about the future so why not talk about the 17-year-old shortstop the Cubs just chose to invest $4 million dollars in?

There’s a possibility that it takes him a little longer to click than it took Rojas, but if he can get on the same trajectory there’s no reason we couldn’t expect to see him playing in this game in 2025 or 2026.

MLB Pipeline has loved what they’ve seen from Cruz, so much so that they had him ranked as their third-best prospect in the International Free Agency class.

They have him as a better player than recent IFA signings Derniche Valdez and Cristian Hernandez and they believe that he has the power profile to be a future third baseman if he continues to fill in his frame and lose athleticism. 

The last feather in his cap is that his cousin is former Chicago Cubs All-Star shortstop, Starlin Castro. Most fans remember Castro pretty fondly so the idea of a family member of his taking the stage in a showcase like this in a year or two as a top prospect is too juicy to pass up.

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