Number 16
Pablo Aliendo C
Age: 22 Years Old
Level: AA Tennessee Smokies
Joined the organization via: IFA Signing in 2018
2023 Stats: .240/.333/.480 11 HR, 14 2B, 3 SB, 34 RBI, 29 R
Pablo Aliendo is not the prospect that Miguel Amaya was. He may not end up being more than a second catcher on a division-winning team. That being said, what he’s shown this year at Double-A is a propensity to hit for significant power. He’s carrying a .240 ISO this year and that’s a playable number at any level.
The 11 homers he has this season are almost as many as he had in 2021 and 2022 combined, which some may see as an outlier but I see as him accessing the raw power he hadn’t in the past. Baseball fans know that catcher is the most defensively intensive position on the baseball diamond and that can lead the bat to lag behind other players in terms of progression as they work on their defense.
If Aliendo finishes this season at Double-A with 18-20 homers and starts next year at Iowa he could find himself operating in a third catcher role at Wrigley by the end of the season and the Cubs could open the 2025 season with two young, cost-controlled, high upside catchers in their World Series run.