Ranking the best-hitting Cubs prospects halfway through the season

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The Chicago Cubs have a solid system that boasts some top-end talent like Pete Crow-Armstrong, but they're also extremely deep. Only one hitter on this list ranked in MLB.com's Cubs top 10 prospects list earlier this season and that's not because the other guys have been bad. Rather, it's because these four hitters have been exceptional in their own right.

There are plenty of players that could have made this list, and there are arguments to be made that there are some more deserving players than the ones we chose. Ezequiel Pagan, Crow-Armstrong and Yonathan Perlaza all have very strong cases to have seen their names here, but at the end of the day I'm just glad the system is this healthy, strong and full of players that could make their way to Wrigley Field sooner rather than later.

Cubs Triple-A Hitter of the First Half: Jared Young 1B (28 Years Old)

.326/.426/.605 45 RBI, 40 R, 13 HR, 7 2B, 43/29 K/BB, 4-for-5 on SB attempts

Is there a way to lose an audience faster than to call a list “Hitting Prospect of the First Half” and then have the Triple-A representative be a 28-year-old that is currently in the majors? I don’t think so but, in reality, Jared Young is the right answer to this question for so many reasons.

Sahadev Sharma of the Athletic said this earlier in July:

In the middle of April, the Cubs looked at their Triple-A Iowa roster and realized they had a bit of a playing-time crunch. To ease those issues, they moved lefty first-baseman Jared Young to the development list. Young was pretty frustrated with the move, but he didn’t pout. ... The 27-year-old called Cubs vice president of player development, Jared Banner, to let him know that he’d take the move in stride. He promised to put his head down and continue to grind like he always did, but he was on a mission to prove to them that he was not only worthy of a roster spot with Iowa, but that he was a big leaguer.
Sahadev Sharma

That’s who Young is as a player and he’s been a fine contributor to the big league squad since receiving the call. At 28 years old he’s likely not the long-term answer at first base. He may not even be the short-term answer if the Cubs sell at the deadline as they might view it as more beneficial to get Matt Mervis some more major league playing time.

That being said, he’s the kind of player that great teams have available in the minor leagues. The Dodgers seem to have a guy they call up every season that comes out of nowhere and is able to be a quality contributor without a ton of prospect clout and pedigree.

At the end of the day, the thing that will likely hold Young back more than his age or anything else, is the fact that he is too similar to the rest of the Cubs current major league roster. Nico Hoerner, Dansby Swanson, Seiya Suzuki and Ian Happ are locked up long-term and none of them are thought of as power hitters. If Christopher Morel can’t limit the strikeouts and if the team moves Cody Bellinger then power at first base becomes more of a necessity than a luxury and Young simply doesn’t project to have the kind of 30-homer power that the team might need from the position.

Cubs Double-A Hitter of the First Half: Owen Caissie OF (21 Years Old)

.275/.377/.519 52 RBI, 44 R, 15 HR, 17 2B, 40/105 K/BB 6-for-12 SB

Trading Kris Bryant hurt me and I refuse to believe that I’m alone in that pain. We’re talking about a player that is more synonymous with the Cubs World Series rebuild than anyone else. The former number two overall pick, NL Rookie of the Year, NL MVP and #Bryzzo co-founder.

Owen Caissie makes that pain a little more manageable. Let’s get it out of the way early: the man strikes out a lot. It's as if getting one-on-one instruction from notorious free-swingers Javy Baez and Morel might actually help him strike out less.

However, he also punishes baseballs with great regularity. He has 15 homers in the first half as well as another 17 doubles and in a world where the National League now employs a designated hitter, he becomes an extremely usable piece moving forward. Even if MLB Pipeline is correct in their assessment of his defensive skills, the bat should play.

While Caissie has flashed plus straight-line speed in the past, he's more of an average runner on the diamond and may lose a step as he fills out his build. He's athletic for his size, but his reads and routes in the outfield need work, and he could wind up as a fringy defender in left field.
MLB.com

Triple-A Iowa lacks a little bit of star power right now with the promotion of Morel and Miguel Amaya. If the Cubs want to aggressively compete next season, a promotion of Caissie and Crow-Armstrong makes too much sense to not happen as the 2023 campaign winds down.

If we were to see Caissie and Crow-Armstrong at the Triple-A level after the break it becomes conceivable that they could be mid-season call-ups next year and even possibilities out of the gate on the Opening Day roster depending on how the offseason plays out.

The thing that Caissie has that Young (and honestly just about everyone else in the system) lacks is extreme raw power. If he can tap into that and limit the strikeouts to provide a little bit of pop in the middle of the lineup then he could quickly find himself being a fixture at Wrigley Field.

Cubs High-A Hitter of the First Half: Kevin Alcantara OF (20 Years Old)

.269/.329/.446 48 RBI, 45 R, 9 HR, 17 2B, 20/71 K/BB 12-for-16 SB

Kevin Alcantara is another of the pieces that makes the bloodbath of the 2021 trade deadline hurt a little less. He’s been the High-A hitting prospect of the week several times this season and at one point I said:

This one feels good. As much as I love when Carlos Guzman and Jared Young get to have a week to be celebrated, you need your top prospects to play like top prospects. Alcantara had a slow start to the year to say the least and you’d still like to see the power expand a little bit, but his slash line this week combined with his stolen base and his home run gives you a little glimpse of what you can hope for at the upper levels in a year or so.

He had an incredibly rough start to the season. There’s no way around that. However in the month of June he hit .306/.379/.518 with nine extra-base hits and a stolen base. That’s what you want to see. If that weren’t good enough, I’ll direct you to the July that he had prior to the All-Star Break where he hit an astounding .435/.519/.783 with four extra-base hits and a stolen base.

Even more important than the average or the power or the speed is what always tends to come last for hitters: the patience. This month, he has more walks (4) than he does strikeouts (3). If he can come back after the break and continue that trend, he’ll be in Double-A by the end of the season and help open the window to legitimate contention wide open for the major league team by the end of 2024.

Regardless of the perceived areas of need on the major league roster right now or even next season based on the current players under contract, Alcantarahas value. If the Cubs genuinely have too many good outfielders/DH options to find a way to get him on the field then he becomes some of the best trade bait on the market next year for whatever they need to get them over the hump and into the playoffs.

Cubs Single-A Hitter of the First Half: Moises Ballesteros C (19 Years Old)

.274/.394/.457 32 RBI, 28 R, 8 HR, 12 2B, 30/40 K/BB 5-for-5 SB

If I were making a top 30 Cubs prospects list the number of catchers on it would likely be surprising to a lot of people, especially with the promotion of Miguel Amaya.

Moises Ballesteros may be my favorite of the bunch. First of all, he’s 19 years old. Even though mlb.com points out that he is significantly heavier than his listed 5’7, 195 pound frame, there’s still room for him to mature physically.

Secondly, even though he’s struggled defensively as a catcher in years passed, he’s played the position significantly better this season. He’s got a 22% caught stealing percentage - which is up significantly from the 13% it was in 2022 - and the five passed balls he has are down from last season’s 10.

Third, he’s stealing bases? I’m not sure how he’s managed to go 5-for-5 in stolen bases this month, but I’d venture a guess that it’s the same reason that Asante Samuel was such a good cornerback in the NFL: he knows what to look for. Samuel was a converted quarterback and so he could read the offense and understand what the quarterback would be looking for and would bait them into throwing it to where he wanted them to throw it. Seemingly, Ballesteros is doing the same thing. He knows what he’d call for a pitch in a given situation and he lulls the pitcher and catcher into a false sense of security before he pounces and pilfers a base.

Finally, this kid has an incredible feel for the strike zone. He’s walked ten more time times (40) than he’s struck out (30). That’s something you get to say about some of the premier college players in the PAC-12, not something you get to say about a 19 year-old catcher that is up against professional pitchers.

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Would I like to see him hit for more power? Sure. But in an organization that let a Silver Slugging catcher like Willson Contreras walk because they were going to roster two former Gold Glove catchers like Yan Gomes and Tucker Barnhart while allowing a former top-100 catching prospect like Miguel Amaya to learn at the major league level, I still find myself thinking Moises Ballesteros may have the most upside of the bunch.

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