Chicago Cubs News: Prospects of the Month for May 2023

Hitter of the Month: 3B BJ Murray (23 Years Old)

.315/.425/.652 16 BB, 10 2B, 6 HR, 20 RBI, 19 R

We’ve talked about BJ Murray quite a bit lately and with good reason. He’s had the most dominant month of any of the Cubs position players that are still in the minors (Matt Mervis and Christopher Morel both had pretty good Aprils). 

I love to see a good ISO from players in the minors because it means that they’re taking advantage of bad pitches which they see significantly more frequently in the minors than they ever will in the majors. 

That being said, I also love to see a strong OBP from players because it shows that they understand the importance of getting on base to put their teammates in a position to drive them in and they can be patient in waiting for their pitch. 

It’s rare to find a guy with a solid OBP and a solid ISO due to the nature of the statistic. Isolated Power is literally just the slugging percentage minus the on-base percentage, so as the OBP goes up, the ISO will inherently go down. 

BJ Murray leads Tennessee in Slugging, is second to Pablo Aliendo in ISO, and is second to Chase Strumpf in OBP. Not bad at all for a former 15th-round pick. Right now, the Iowa Cubs are using AAA hitter of the month Jake Slaughter at third base, so there’s not a clear path to more playing time if he were to earn a promotion, but I think the Cubs will be significantly more likely to try to find out what they have from Murray than they are to hold him back to continue to give the 26-year-old Slaughter at-bats.

There are only a few positions that don’t appear to have a future relatively certain on this squad. The corners of the outfield with Ian Happ and Seiya Suzuki are locked up. The middle of the infield with Dansby Swanson and Nico Hoerner are locked up. The Cubs would love for Matt Mervis to be the answer at first base, Pete Crow-Armstrong to be the answer in center field and Miguel Amaya to be the answer behind the dish. In that scenario, Patrick Wisdom is the short-term answer, but I have a hard time thinking he’s on the next team to win a World Series. BJ Murray might be though.