2025 In-Season Cubs Top Prospect Lists Updates

[mul21]

Just now, JBears79 said:

Who was the last international pick the Cubs signed and developed that turned into a good player? Contreras? 

I covered that in my next response.  Probably Gleyber Torres honestly.

[Outshined_One]

3 minutes ago, JBears79 said:

Who was the last international pick the Cubs signed and developed that turned into a good player? Contreras? Mo Baller and Rojas both look food right now I guess

Adbert Alzolay pre-injury?

[CaliforniaRaisin]

4 minutes ago, JBears79 said:

Who was the last international pick the Cubs signed and developed that turned into a good player? Contreras? Mo Baller and Rojas both look food right now I guess

Miguel Amaya and/or Javier Assad?

(Assuming we aren't counting Paredes, Torres or Jiménez for this exercise)

[CaliforniaRaisin]

4 minutes ago, Outshined_One said:

Adbert Alzolay pre-injury?

Alzolay signed in 2013 (Torres and Jiménez class). Amaya, Assad, Christopher Morel and Paredes were in the 2015 class.

Admittedly the Cubs severely capped some of their IFA classes by going over budget in 2013 and 2015, forcing them to not make any big signings in 2014, 2016 or 2017.

[Bertz]

Yeah 2016-2019 looks pretty brutal, but that die is cast.  '20 onward the IFA pipeline seems to be in pretty solid shape.  And given all of the front office modernization stuff was done in '19 gives you pretty decent reason to hope there's process improvement behind those results.

Draft-wise things never got nearly as dire (2017 sucked but seems pretty one-off), but similarly since moving over to Kantrovitz things have been great, aside from 2020 where I think you do have to give him a break from a logistics standpoint.

[CubinNY]

21 hours ago, CaliforniaRaisin said:

The Cubs have to flex their financial muscle in the majors because that's their only advantage (an admittedly big one) in division.

This is the most frustrating part of all of it. They refuse to flex.

They have no margin for error in an area of baseball that is the hardest to predict. 

[Bertz]

It's for good reason, successfully graduating Shaw and Horton, but Cubs farm took a tumble from preseason.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

BA updated their top 30 too: https://www.baseballamerica.com/teams/2005-chicago-cubs/prospects/

1. Moisés Ballesteros
2. Owen Caissie
3. Jefferson Rojas
4. Jaxon Wiggins
5. Kevin Alcántara
6. Ethan Conrad
7. Jonathon Long
8. James Triantos
9. Kane Kepley
10. Juan Tomás
11. Will Sanders
12. Brandon Birdsell
13. Pedro Ramírez
14. Cristian Hernández
15. Cole Mathis
16. Juan Cabada
17. Ángel Cepeda
18. Josiah Hartshorn
19. Eli Lovich
20. Brett Bateman
21. Brody McCullough
22. Nick Dean
23. Yahil Melendez
24. Ty Southisene
25. Jostin Florentino
26. Kaleb Wing
27. Connor Noland
28. Grant Kipp
29. Tyler Schlaffer
30. Kade Snell

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Also the Cubs now slot in at 22 in BA's updated top farms: 

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Kiley McDaniel updated his top 10s at ESPN. Feels like these guys might not need to update their lists as frequently, very little changes.

[We Got The Whole 9]

47 minutes ago, CaliforniaRaisin said:

Also the Cubs now slot in at 22 in BA's updated top farms: 

 

And the team with MLB's best record is number 1

[CaliforniaRaisin]

3 minutes ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

And the team with MLB's best record is number 1

Well, yeah, but that's because BA still considers Misirowski a prospect even though he's lost his eligibility.

The Cubs farm system would look a lot better if Horton got to stick around on rankings.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

41. Moisés Ballesteros
49. Owen Caissie
89. Jefferson Rojas
100. Jaxon Wiggins

[imb]

these idiots forgot about ethan hearn again

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Kiley updated his top farm systems: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/46070464/2025-mlb-prospect-rankings-update-farm-systems-30-teams-mets-dodgers-mariners

[Tryptamine]

32 minutes ago, CaliforniaRaisin said:

Kiley updated his top farm systems: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/46070464/2025-mlb-prospect-rankings-update-farm-systems-30-teams-mets-dodgers-mariners

I'm with Kiley on this. I think the most recent draft stands a very good chance at restocking a system that has lost a ton of talent the last couple years. There was a period pre draft where things were looking pretty bleak once the AAA cast moved on.

[Bertz]

I think it helps too that Myrtle Beach went from hitting like the Bad News Bears to hitting like the '27 Yankees over the last 6 weeks or so.  The farm thinned out *fast* earlier in the year but now I actually have guys that I would like to include on my Top 20 that I can't fit.

[Bertz]

Alcantara 44, Rojas 55, Wiggins 66

No Caissie or Mo still, but maybe in his fuller offseason update they make their way back on.