Chicago Cubs Top Prospects: Midseason Top 30 Chicago Cubs Prospects (#10-6)

The Chicago Cubs have a solid minor league system that features legit star power, high ceiling/low floor guys, and high floor/low ceiling guys. The system isn’t top heavy, it’s deep and there are more than 30 guys that could have made this list, but these are the 30 guys that I believe are:

1. Most likely to make an impact on the major league squad
2. May be less likely to make the league, but if they do they have legit star power.

Earlier this week we looked at the 30th-21st best prospect as well as the 20th-11th best prospect in the system. Later this week we’ll look at the Top 5 prospects but until then, here is the 10th-best prospect in the Chicago Cubs minor league system. 

Number 10 

Owen Caissie OF 

Age: 21 Years Old

Level: Double-A Tennessee Smokies

Joined the organization via: Yu Darvish Trade with the San Diego Padres

2023 Stats: .271/.373/.500 15 HR, 18 2B, 6 SB 56 RBI, 47 R

Owen Caissie was acquired along with journeyman RHP Zach Davies, SS Reginald Preciado, OF Ismael Mena and SS Yeison Santana. Davies is out of the organization and none of the other players are above High-A right now. 

There were obviously monetary reasons that prompted the Darvish trade that outweighed the baseball side of things, but regardless of why the trade happened, if Caissie continues to hit the way he has this year then he could make that sting a little bit less.

He’s been moving alongside Pete Crow-Armstrong and the two look as though they could be making an impact at Wrigley Field sooner than later, but the thing that may stand in Caissie’s way is that he has an incredible 115 strikeouts this season. That isn’t a new development, either. Last season he had 124, but he also had nearly 100 more plate appearances to get to that number.

Pitching is obviously better the higher you go, but Caissie’s inability to control the strike-zone is the only thing preventing him from being higher on this list. He needs to get better at picking his spots on the basepaths as well considering he’s been caught stealing more often than he’s successfully taken the base (6-for-13), but that aggressive play style seems to be something that the Cubs are reinforcing rather than redirecting.

If he can manage to reduce the strikeouts, be more selective in his base-stealing and continue to put together the power production he has this season, then he becomes a legitimate contributor whether it’s in a corner outfield position or at DH.