Chicago Cubs Minor League Recap: Matt Shaw may be the third baseman of the present

It was a busy week on the farm for the affiliates of the Chicago Cubs. They had two of their teams listed in the top ten rankings of all farm teams across baseball thanks to the Tennessee Smokies and Iowa Cubs, and they rattled off a fair number of wins.

Iowa has won four of their last five and is sitting just a game back of the Omaha Storm Chasers in the western division of the International League. This weekend, they’ll finish up their road series with the St. Paul Saints, and next week they’ll have a six-game set against the Louisville Bats. 

Tennessee had a rough week with two of their games getting postponed due to rain, but they’ll make up one of them as a double-header this evening. They’re 3-1 to start the season and they look to be every bit as good (at least offensively) as advertised with an average of over six runs per game so far.

South Bend hasn’t started the season in the way you’d want to see, but that could be due to all of the promotions and the farm system being very top-heavy with great talent. After winning their first game against the Quad Cities River Bandits, they proceeded to drop their next four prior to a rainout on Thursday. 

Finally, Myrtle Beach has struggled a bit out of the gate as well. In their first six games, they’ve allowed a total of 52 runs which, needless to say, is a little less than ideal. They should be able to get back on track and even if they don’t they still have the best pair of brothers in the minor leagues playing up the middle. 

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Pitchers of the Week

Michael Arias

RHP (AA Tennessee Smokies)

2 G, 4.0 IP, 2.25 ERA, 4 H, 2BB, 6 K

Michael Arias was a monster this week. He was a monster last season in Low-A as well, but he struggled a bit after getting the call-up to High-A South Bend.

The Cubs have made the decision to move Arias to the bullpen and it appears to be paying early dividends, as his erratic nature is a little more acceptable from a reliever than it is from a starter.

The stuff is still filthy, as proven by the fact that he’s striking out 13.5 batters per nine innings at a higher level of difficulty. If he continues to pitch this way he could be on the fast track to the majors like Daniel Palencia was last season.

Nick Dean

RHP (Low-A Myrtle Beach Pelicans)

1 G, 3.1 IP, 2.70 ERA, 2 H, 1 BB, 8 K

Nick Dean was the Cubs’ 19th-round pick out of Maryland last season. To start the year, he came in as a reliever and put together an extremely solid debut.

In his brief stint in the game, he faced a total of 13 batters. He walked one, allowed two hits, and struck out eight of them. 

Dean wasn’t a huge strikeout guy at Maryland, in fact in half of his seasons there he averaged less than one strikeout per inning (which in college ball isn’t anything special, especially in the Big Ten). 

That being said, the Cubs may have unlocked something in him over the winter and it’ll be very interesting to see how the rest of his season goes.

Honorable Mentions

Luis Vazquez

SS (AAA Iowa Cubs)

.500/.529/.929 2 HR, 4 R, 4 RBI, 2/4 BB/K, 1/2 SB

Luis Vazquez is a player that we’ve said over and over exists on great teams. He’s the kind of organizational depth and versatile utility infielder that has a place in the big leagues for a long time. 

Does he have the star power that Matt Shaw has? Probably not. However, he’s the kind of player that the Cubs need to work very hard to keep in the system and not lose like they lost Nelson Velazquez.

If there’s an injury to Dansby Swanson or Nico Hoerner and the Cubs don’t jump at the opportunity to give Shaw an opportunity at the highest level, it’s very likely that Vazquez is the next man up, and also quite likely that he doesn’t give up the job very easily when the aforementioned player is healthy again. 

Moises Ballesteros

C (AA Tennessee Smokies)

.273/.385/.636 1 HR, 1 2B, 4 R, 3 RBI, 2/1 BB/K

In just about any other week, this stat line would be good enough to be the prospect of the week. 

MLB Pipeline has already predicted the future and they see Ballesteros as the top Cubs prospect by the time 2026 rolls around, but if Ballesteros continues to mash like this he could already have a year’s worth of MLB at-bats under his considerable belt by that point.

Ballesteros may well have been the top-performing prospect in the system last year. He was a teenager who flew up to the AA level, having nearly as many walks (63) as strikeouts (78) while playing the most difficult position on the diamond.

The Cubs may have their catcher of the future on the major league roster right now with Miguel Amaya, but Ballesteros is going to do everything in his power to change that narrative.