Prospects of the Week for Chicago Cubs Affiliates for the Week for 5/21-5/28

Chicago Cubs Triple-A Hitter of the week: OF Yonathan Perlaza (24 Years Old)

.350/.435/.550 3 BB, 4 2B, 5 R, 2 RBI

This is the second week in a row that the hitter of the Week award for the Iowa Cubs has gone to Yonathan Perlaza. An argument could have been made for Miguel Amaya who put up a .357/.500/.643 slash line with a home run and six RBI this week, but Perlaza really continued to impress and I wanted to shine a little bit more light on what he’s been able to do so far this season. 

A lot of times when you see a guy experience the growth that Perlaza has over the last month or so, you see that he’s getting to his raw power or that he’s striking out less or walking more. For Perlaza that’s not the case. He’s walking 13.6% of the time which is only slightly better than last year’s 13.2%. He’s striking out 24.8% of the time which is his highest number since 2019. Finally, he’s seen his ISO drop nearly fifty points since last season when it was .236 to where it is now at .189. 

The easiest way to explain what Perlaza has done this year is to say that he’s finally getting to some in-game speed. This season Perlaza has stolen six bases, but has only been caught once which is the best percentage of any season he’s had as a professional. He currently has an otherworldly .397 BABIP which is obviously unsustainable. That being said, he’s shown that he knows his strengths right now because he’s seemingly changed his approach in two major ways.

He’s pulling the ball for doubles and slapping the ball oppo for singles. He’s Willie Mays Hays in Major League 1. He’s not trying to steal in situations that he shouldn’t be stealing in and he’s using his speed to get on base through ground balls and line drives rather than being Willie Mays Hayes in Major League 2 who was spending too much time trying to hit for power.