The Chicago Cubs' best prospect this season will surprise you

The Chicago Cubs farm system is incredibly loaded, that story has been told over and over again and will only get louder the closer to the trade deadline that we get.

However, there is one prospect this season that has been leaps and bounds better than the rest and it’s not the one that just about anyone would have picked prior to the start of the 2024 season.

Pete Crow-Armstrong and Cade Horton were duking it out with most outlets to be named the top Cubs prospect. Some hipsters threw out the idea that 2023 first-round pick, Matt Shaw, could be the best of the bunch. No one had James Triantos.

James Triantos has had the best season in the minors of any Cubs prospect this year

Triantos has been exceptional all season. He’s started to hit for a bit of power that had eluded him up to this point, he’s continued to hit for average and he’s stolen bases at a great clip. He even entered the season as one of the top second base prospects in the game, so why wasn’t he receiving a level of respect that matches that level of talent?

The short answer is that his game was a little boring. Yeah, he could hit and play solid defense but there wasn’t anything flashy. He couldn’t hit the homers that Owen Caissie could or steal the bases that Pete Crow-Armstrong could, and he wasn’t young enough to dream like Jefferson Rojas or Moises Ballesteros.

Over the last seven days, Triantos hit .524/.545/.857 with a homer and four doubles. He only struck out once during that period and was a perfect 6-for-6 on stolen bases.

On the year, he’s batting .298 and he’s quickly proving that he’s too talented to remain at Double-A Tennessee for much longer. 

If you had told us at the beginning of the year that the Cubs' top prospect through May would be a Double-A infielder, it would have been reasonable to expect that to be Matt Shaw. However, Triantos (who is over a year younger than Shaw) has outperformed him in just about every meaningful category.

Last week, we discussed how Triantos had improved his stock as a potential trade chip this season but he may quietly be working his way into the future plans of the team.