What did the Chicago Cubs get from their picks in Rounds 6-10 of the 2023 MLB Draft?

The Chicago Cubs had a pretty solid draft regardless of who is talking about it in the baseball world right now. Several years of dealing mid-tier major league talent for mid-tier minor league prospects has led the organization to be very deep but it lacks the legitimate star power that it had a decade ago. 

This year’s class aims to change that.

We’ve had a lot of draft coverage this year already so if you want a deep dive into the Cubs first-round pick, Matt Shaw, you can look at this piece we posted a few days ago. 

If you want to understand why they went with Shaw rather than a pitcher you can look at this one.

If you want a deep dive in second round fireballer Jax Wiggins check this out.

That being said, this piece is about giving you some background on the Cubs' 6th-10th round picks and we’ll have additional coverage for the guys they took in the 11th-20th later this week. 

6th Round Pick- Alfonsin Rosario OF (HS)

Rosario is an interesting pick. There are a lot of guys that have “the look” and by all reports, Rosario has the look. He’s already big, even at 19 years old, and he has the kind of big-time raw power and arm that are associated with that size. Unfortunately, he doesn’t make it to the Cubs in the 6th round if there aren’t also significant concerns about the swing and miss in his game and I have a hard time not thinking of Brennen Davis. The potential is tantalizing, and the Cubs have to try to get some star power potential in this extremely deep farm system, but the potential for failure is very present as well. 

Sahadev Sharma of the Athletic said:

Rosario is near the top of prep athletes when it comes to bat speed and exit velocities. The Cubs do expect some growing pains as he faces advanced pitching for the first time. But the raw numbers and swing properties led them to believe he could eventually hit for big-time power. His bat speed, paired with a planar swing, allows him to keep the bat in the hitting window, which gives him the ability to make strong contact even if his timing isn’t perfect.

7th Round Pick- Yahil Melendez SS (HS)

There are some things you need every year at the trade deadline: a reliever or two, a lefty bench bat, a solid defender for late-game substitution purposes, etc. Yahil Melendez is a player who could be much more than a bench bat but there is a lot to like with this pick, especially in the 7th round. 

Melendez is a left-handed shortstop that has the defensive prowess to stick there or move to third base. According to Keith Law, he’s also still very projectable unlike the Cubs 6th round pick, Rosario, who by most accounts has hit his physical limits.

Puerto Rican shortstop Yahil Melendez (7) is a wiry, projectable left-handed hitter with good shape to the swing and some power from strong wrists. He should stay at shortstop and has a 55-60 arm to stay on the left side regardless. He hasn’t had any trouble getting to fastballs but he hasn’t faced much great pitching, especially with 2023 a down year for Puerto Rican draft talent.

Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic said that some within the organization compare him to current Cubs prospect Ezequiel Pagan “with the potential for a bit more pop.” Again, the Cubs have a great need for star power and just regular old slugging power and if they can get that from a 7th-round prep shortstop, we’ll take it. 

9th Round Pick- Jonathan Long 1B (Long Beach State University)

Long obviously didn’t play against exceptional talent at Long Beach State, but he is a power-hitting first baseman with good bat speed. He had more extra-base hits this season (32) than Bateman had in his three years at Minnesota. He batted .312/.404/.600 with 15 homers and kept the strikeouts in check with only 44 to go against the 29 walks he took. He also started every game this season and is the kind of bat the Cubs need in the system to try to home-grow some power and Sahadev Sharma of the athletic had this to say:

As teams get into the later rounds, they’re often just looking for a carrying tool to lean on. Long has one of the higher bat speeds in all of the draft. Essentially, he’s done what they will attempt to do with Melendez: convert turn speed into bat speed. Long is physical, strong and creates high-end exit velocities while not having the type of extreme strikeout rates one would expect to come with this type of big raw power.

10th Round Pick- Luis Martinez-Gomez RHP (Junior College)

This is an interesting pick to me because based on the stats I’m not seeing anything that is eye-popping. During his freshman season, he struck out a lot of hitters (69) across 45.2 innings, but it came at the cost of a 6.90 ERA.

This season he went 7-4 with a much improved 2.83 ERA but struck out fewer batters (56) across more innings (63.2). 

He’s not the kind of player that a team drafts because they believe in the frame or body type at 6’2 175 pounds. 

There is a chance that the Cubs liked what they saw when he was playing in the Western Canadian Baseball League as a 19-year-old in 2022 where he struck out 76 batters over 56 innings while holding a 2.25 ERA. 

FiveToolJUCO on Twitter did have a post on May 13th from an especially positive performance out of Martinez-Gomez when he went seven innings and struck out nine while only allowing one run. 

From what I can find his fastball and slider are his two best pitches but he also has a splitter and a changeup that the Cubs will try to work on and see if they can keep him as a starter. If not, the fastball has already shown the ability to get to 96 MPH and if he can tick it up a bit more in shorter stints he could be useful sooner than later out of the pen.

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