Should the Cubs Be More Aggressive With Their Top Prospects?

By: Jacob Zanolla

In 2019, Major League Baseball made their slogan “Let the Kids Play.” It was meant to show support for players that wanted to show more emotion on the field, as a big youth movement had started to go throughout baseball. As much as it should still be the case today, I think it can apply to the current state of the Chicago Cubs as well. Jed Hoyer has built one of the best, if not the best, farm systems in all of baseball. Pete Crow-Armstrong was promoted and he has had major-league level, but that is about it. Are the Cubs being too cautious with their minor leaguers? I’d argue that they are, and you can’t find out what you have if these players aren’t put to the test.

I recently wrote about Moises Ballesteros, and the fact that the Cubs need to promote him to help a struggling offense in Chicago. They ignored that (not that I have any say in what they do, sadly), and the offense continues to be extremely mediocre. When looking at possible trade ideas for this deadline, it has become clear that the Cubs will most likely get some prospects back in return for some pieces leaving the major league squad. The problem with this is that I trust Jed Hoyer to acquire solid talent, but the way the organization handles that talent is what worries me. The Cubs bench currently consists of Miles Mastrobuoni, Patrick Wisdom, Tomas Nido, and Mike Tauchman. Tauchman is a very solid player, but other than him, there are quite a few wasted bats that are taking up space. At what point do we try watching some prospects to see what they are able to offer?

Double-A is having a historic season offensively, and its not in a good way. The ball is dead, and offense is down across the league. This means that any offense at all can come as a surprise. The top three prospects on the Tennessee Smokies right now are Matt Shaw, James Triantos, and Kevin Alcantara. Shaw enters Thursday with a .257 average, 134 wRC+, and .792 OPS. Something I found particularly interesting, supporting the case of low offense in AA, is that his wRC+ is up from last year even though most of the other numbers are down. Triantos is doing good as well, with a similar 121 wRC+. They’re both infielders, mainly playing at second and third base for the Smokies. Alcantara can be a streaky hitter, but the power is what has really impressed me during these stretches. He has nine home runs, with a .424 slugging and .348 wOBA. A 123 wRC+ is once again about where he was last season, even though the overall numbers are down. Alexander Canario was carted off of the field on Wednesday, which will open up an outfielder spot in Iowa if he is indeed placed on the IL. It is clear that these three are doing well in AA even with the dead ball, so why not get them away from that league and see what they can do in Iowa?

In Iowa, Owen Caissie and Moises Ballesteros are the two names I want promoted to Chicago. I won’t really get into Ballesteros, as I wrote a whole piece earlier this month on him, but I will say that he has continued to do well and still deserves the call to the show. Caissie currently has a .819 OPS and 114 OPS+, and is once again performing above league average. He’s only appeared in 80 games entering Thursday, missing some time due to an injury. One thing that will help earn them a promotion would be some trades next week of our current outfielders, and I have to assume at least Mike Tauchman will get moved.

The Cubs seem to be great at holding onto prospects until their peak value is behind them, when sometimes you have to use those prospects to acquire major league talent. We’ve seen it multiple times, and I don’t want to watch this happen again with the Cubs elite talent in their system, and more likely coming after the deadline.

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