Owen Ayers’ Breakout Season Has Changed the Tune Around Cubs' Future Catching Plans

[Cory Sparks]

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Owen Ayers is developing into quite the story, going from a prospect who wasn’t on many radars and struggled with injuries to a breakout star in the Chicago Cubs’ pipeline. Let’s break down the Cubs’ next big catching prospect and update his scouting report ahead of the second half of the 2026 season.

Owen Ayers' Updated Cubs Scouting Report

Ayers is Chicago’s eighth ranked prospect per our June update, and he’s been skyrocketing up our rankings as of late. Standing at 6-foot-1, 205 pounds, Ayers is a switch-hitter who has shown off a missile of an arm and a potent bat to fill out a pretty strong farmhand makeup. 

Ayers wasn’t always a name deemed synonymous with the future of the North Siders, though. The 25-year-old backstop was once a three-year player at the State JC of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota before spending a pair of seasons with Marshall. He caught the Cubs’ eye in a pre-draft workout before signing on as a 19th-round pick in the 2024 draft. 

His first couple of years were on the quieter side, as Ayers logged back-to-back seasons with batting averages of .190 and .238 with the Low-A Myrtle Beach Pelicans, topping out at a .761 OPS. Ayers then met a painful setback, suffering a broken right hand in July that took him off the field for the rest of last year. After returning to win the Arizona Fall League’s Breakout Player of the Year award, it was off to the races on what’s been a meteoric rise. 

A Cannon For An Arm

Before getting into his power and approach, this is someone who can be a serious problem for opposing base-runners. Ayers didn’t become a full-time backstop until his final year in college ball, but he has the necessary intangibles to be a weapon behind the plate. Ayers flashed a sub-1.85 pop time in his 20-game stint in the AFL last year, and his 70-grade arm strength can make him a real asset in a day and age where disengagement limits hinder the pitcher’s ability to pick off runners. He still has to work on his receiving and blocking, but the skillset is there for him to be a difference maker behind the plate.

Insane Slugging Upside

Ayers’ bat has jolted alive in the last calendar year. After logging a .357 batting average and an OPS north of 1.100 in AFL play, he’s already turned in a 21-homer season in just 70 games. The switch-hitter started the season off with the High-A South Bend Cubs, quickly earning a promotion after whacking six homers, three doubles and registering a 1.341 OPS across 11 games. 

His numbers are here to stay for a longer stint with the Double-A Knoxville Smokies, as he’s smashed 15 homers with an impressive .321/.436/.659 slash line. Two years after barely sneaking onto the board in the 20-round draft format, Ayers is flirting with a 40-home run pace a pair of levels away from the show. 

Mature Plate Discipline

Catchers tend to see more pitches at the plate than any other position player, so it should be no shock that Ayers has above-average plate discipline. Working 48 walks in just over 300 plate appearances this season, the rising backstop is hovering above a 15% walk rate, a mark that would be considered elite at the MLB level.  

Ayers’ Road To Wrigley

The Sarasota, FL native is still a raw prospect in some capacities, but his upside is turning to every day performance. Can the team’s top catching prospect slot into the big-league clubhouse sooner than later? 

Remember, 32-year-old Carson Kelly is on the front end of a two-year, $11.5 million deal with the club, an agreement that includes a mutual option for the 2027 season. Miguel Amaya, 26, is on the precipice of an arbitration period that will kick in next year. There’s no telling how much Ayers can impact the front office’s decisions with the two big-league backstops already in place, but if he finds himself putting up comparable numbers when he gets promoted to the Triple-A Iowa Cubs, he'll have to factor into the equation.

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