Chicago Cubs Prospects: Mid-Season Top 30 Chicago Cubs Prospects (#30-21)

The Chicago Cubs have a minor league system that features some top-level talent like MLB.com’s seventh-best prospect in the league, Pete Crow-Armstrong. It is also filled with players that project to be major league contributors, and guys with extremely high ceilings but also impossibly low floors. 

The players we’ll look at in today’s post are the 30th-21st best prospects in the system. There are guys on this list that have the ability to pitch out of the bullpen in Wrigley as soon as the end of this season, depth arms that can be spot starters that are shuttled in from Iowa, and a couple of teenage shortstops to dream on in the lower levels.

Later this week we’ll look at the Top 20 prospects, but until then, here is the 30th-best prospect in the Chicago Cubs minor league system. 

Number 30 

Luke Little LHP 

Age: 22 Years Old

Level: AA Tennessee Smokies

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

2023 Stats: 45.1 IP 2.38 ERA 67/29 K/BB

Luke Little is what you envision when you say the word “imposing.” At 6’8 220 pounds, the lefty comes out of the bullpen and overpowers hitters. He has a career 2.66 ERA in the minors since joining the Cubs and he’s struck out 13.8 batters per nine innings. 

The Cubs are looking for ways to improve the bullpen at the major league level right now and will likely be looking for ways to do it again next season. Having a big lefty with high-leverage stuff that has a track record of shutting down opposing hitters is a hard profile to pass up and I’m very much looking forward to getting Little to the majors by the end of this season or by mid-season 2024. 

Number 29 

Brailyn Marquez LHP

Age: 24 Years Old

Level: A+ South Bend Cubs

Joined the organization via: IFA signing in 2015

2023 Stats: 7.1 IP 0.00 ERA 9/4 K/BB

If you’ve followed the Cubs minor league system over the last decade you’ve heard the name Brailyn Marquez. At one point he was the top prospect in the system and one of the top prospects, much less the top left-handed pitcher, in all of baseball. That being said, after a great 2019 and an MLB debut in 2020, Marquez completely disappeared. 

Injuries, and reported mental struggles on the mound had him return to square one and that is starting to pay dividends in terms of his results so far this season. He’s older than the competition he’s playing against, but he’s yet to allow a run and still has his 100-mph velocity coming from the left-handed side of the mound. Between Marquez and the aforementioned Little, the days of relying on Brandon Hughes as the only lefty out of the pen with any talent should be coming to an end sooner rather than later. 

Number 27 

Porter Hodge RHP

Age: 22 Years Old

Level: AA Tennessee Smokies

Joined the organization via: 13th Round Pick in 2019 MLB Draft

2023 Stats: 59.1 IP 5.01 ERA 77/35 K/BB

Hodge is another player on this list that is looking like he may be a reliever, but in the day and age of baseball that we find ourselves in, having a slew of solid relievers with stuff to blow away hitters is more important than ever before. 

He’s got a good fastball that MLB Pipeline has said can touch 98 MPH and a slider that he’s developed more as a sweeper in the Cubs system. His tertiary pitches are a curveball and changeup but if the Cubs determine they’d rather move him quickly through the system and use him out of the pen they could punt those last two pitches and focus on improving that fastball velocity even more in shorter stents and lean on the sweeper as the secondary pitch. 

The Cubs lack power in the lineup and power on the pitching staff. Would I love to see Hodge walk fewer guys or have a lower ERA? Sure. But I love to see him striking out 11.7 batters per nine innings because good teams have guys that can miss bats. 

Number 26 

Caleb Kilian RHP

Age: 26 Years Old

Level: AAA Iowa Cubs

Joined the organization via: Kris Bryant Trade with San Francisco Giants

2023 Stats: 71.2 IP 4.27 ERA 55/23 K/BB

Kilian is the opposite of the previous three pitchers on this list. He’s a back-of-the-rotation type starter or middle/long-relief option because he simply doesn’t have the stuff to compete in high-leverage positions. 

That sentence may sound like an indictment that should keep him off of a top prospects list, but he has the ability to be a major league contributor and most organizations don’t have 30 guys like that at any given time. 

He’s the kind of depth arm that good teams keep in AAA for spot starts that won’t completely throw away games when he’s called upon (even if that’s exactly what he did in his one start this season against the Miami Marlins).

Number 25

Kohl Franklin RHP

Age: 23 Years Old

Level: AA Tennessee Smokies

Joined the organization via: 6th Round Pick in 2018 MLB Draft

2023 Stats: 65.2 IP 4.66 ERA 71/33 K/BB

Franklin is a similar player to Hodge in my opinion. That being said, unlike Hodge, Franklin hasn’t pitched in a game that he didn’t start since 2018 in Rookie ball as an 18-year-old in his draft season. 

That’s the difference between Franklin and Hodge and why Franklin appears higher on this list than Hodge: the Cubs still believe in Franklin as a starting pitching prospect and that is always going to be more valuable than a reliever. If Franklin continues to struggle with the walks the Cubs may change their minds and try to make a move, but for now, he’s impressed them enough to warrant a promotion this season and could be in Chicago by the end of the 2024 season. 

Number 24

Nazier Mule RHP/SS

Age: 18 Years Old

Level: N/A

Joined the organization via: 4th Round Pick in 2022 MLB Draft

2023 Stats: N/A

This would have been a really fun guy to see this season and may have been ranked as high if not higher than Jackson Ferris on this list if he’d gotten to play baseball this year. Unfortunately, the dominant two-way prep star required Tommy John Surgery prior to the start of the season and likely won’t return until midway through next year.

How does an 18-year-old make the top-25 prospect list for a solid organization if he hasn’t played an inning of baseball there? He has the skillset that Mule did prior to the 2022 draft when he was hitting 100 MPH on the mound and showing the athleticism to stick at shortstop and the pop and speed to be an impact player at the plate as well. 

I’m not saying he’s Shohei Ohtani. But I’m also not not saying it. We’ll find out next year. 

Number 23

Alexis Hernandez SS

Age: 18 Years Old

Level: Rookie Ball

Joined the organization via: IFA Signing in 2022

2023 Stats: .364/.446/.557 1 HR, 8 2B, 3 3B, 8 SB, 18 RBI, 19 R 

That makes back-to-back 18-year-old shortstops and they won’t be the last one on the list. The Cubs have always excelled at finding young shortstop talent whether it was Starlin Castro, Javier Baez, Gleyber Torres, or the guys they have in the system now, they’ve always been able to find impact guys and that gives me a level of confidence in these players that I might not have in some other positions.

Cristian Hernandez was the crown jewel of the IFA class in 2021 and in 2022 Alexis Hernandez is definitely giving him a run for his money. 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.

Number 22

Josh Rivera SS

Age: 22 Years Old

Level: N/A

Joined the organization via: 3rd Round Pick in the 2023 MLB Draft

2023 Stats: (College) .348/.447/.617 19 HR, 10 2B, 18 SB, 46/35 BB/K

Rivera is one of my favorite picks from the 2023 draft haul that the Cubs got. With the signing bonus pool being the way that it is, college seniors like Rivera are often used as a means of saving money because the player lacks a lot of leverage in the negotiations. Rivera was the exception as he actually signed for over his slot value which should go to show how much the Cubs coveted him as a player. 

The numbers jump off the page. He walked more than he struck out, he stole bases, he hit home runs, he played the most important position on the diamond and he did it all in the best division in college baseball on a team that came within a game of the College World Series. His bat should move very quickly through the system and you could see him in Wrigley by the middle of the 2024 season if things break right. 

Number 21

Yonathan Perlaza OF

Age: 24 Years Old

Level: AAA Iowa Cubs

Joined the organization via: IFA Signing in 2015

2023 Stats: .293/.390/.526 11 HR, 23 2B, 3 3B, 10 SB, 49 RBI, 56 R

Yonathan Perlaza should be at Wrigley right now. If he’s not going to be the next man up, then he should absolutely be there in August after the Cubs inevitably deal Cody Bellinger to a team in a better position to contend than they find themselves in right now. 

He’s not a player that has light-tower power and he doesn’t have blazing speed. What he does do is get on base and hit for average, which is something that I know Cubs fans are sick of hearing with regards to their outfielders (Seiya Suzuki and Ian Happ), but he is a player that can be a regular on a wild card team and a bench bat on a division-winning team.

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