Owen Caissie named Chicago Cubs' minor league player of the year

Baseball America has named the Chicago Cubs No. 3 prospect Owen Caissie the organization's minor league player of the year.

Caissie is just 21 years old and he was acquired by the Cubs from the San Diego Padres in the Yu Darvish trade in 2020. At the time, Caissie had yet to play a professional baseball game since he was drafted out of high school by the Padres in 2020 as the 45th overall pick in 2020.

Caissie really hasn't been a flashy player until this year. Even though he just won the most coveted prize for a minor league player in his position, you don't see his name mentioned too often in conversations about the Cubs' future. Maybe this will change things because the Cubs could certainly use his talents.

Standing at 6'3, Caissie is a slugging outfielder who bats left-handed. He played the entire 2023 season at the Double-A level, where he smacked 22 home runs, and 31 doubles while posting a .917 OPS in 439 at-bats. Although Caissie struck out 31.1% of the time this year, which is not outlandish for a slugger, he showed a lot of plate discipline this year and he collected 76 walks with an on-base percentage of .398.

After all of this success, I expect Caissie will begin the 2024 campaign at Triple-A Iowa, making just a phone call away from a major-league call-up. The problem is there is not much room for an average defensive outfielder like Caissie at Wrigley Field. Seiya Suzuki and Ian Happ will be manning the corners for a few more years while center field is destined for Pete Crow-Armstrong's unbelievable glove. Caissie is probably more of a designated hitter anyway, so it'd be nice if the Cubs could teach Christopher Morel to play third base already because guys like Caissie could contribute in that spot.

As the 64th man on MLB's top 100 prospects list, Caissie should at the very least be seen as valuable moving forward. Worst case scenario, Caissie becomes the focal point of a trade somewhere down the road with offensive spots on the team limited.

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