Cubs Farm System Updates: So Many Moving Parts In Latest Top-20 Prospect Ranking

[Jason Ross]

Image courtesy of © Angelina Alcantar/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

July can be a bit of a wild month when it comes to prospect lists. On one hand, new additions via the amateur draft can shake up the order with a flood of exiting new talents. Having multiple picks in the top-75, the Chicago Cubs were able to add a lot of upside into the system with some exciting youngsters fresh out of college; Cade Townsend (first round), Caden Sorrel (second round) and Myles Bailey (third round) are a welcome group with big-time potential.

At the same time, July can represent a time where teams with October aspirations will subtract from their pool of talent, something the Cubs very much did as Jefferson Rojas and Mason McGwire (among others) now find themselves in new homes. Where does the system sit today after all of the incoming an outgoing players? Below you will find the results of our most recent crowd-sourced voting by readers and staff here on North Side Baseball. 

Chicago Cubs Updated Top-20 Prospects List (Post-Deadline 2026)

1. Josiah Hartshorn, OF
2. Cade Townsend, P
3. Jaxon Wiggins, P
4. Owen Ayers, C
5. Kane Kepley, OF
6. Ethan Conrad, OF
7. Caden Sorrell, OF
8. Kaleb Wing, P
9. Myles Bailey, 1b
10. Brooks Caple, P
11. James Triantos, utility
12. Will Sanders, P
13. Juan Cabada, INF
14. Jostin Florentino, P
15. Derniche Valdez, INF
16. Grant Kipp, P
17. Jose Escobar, OF
18. Ariel Armas, C
19. Fernando Cruz, INF
20. Brandon Birdsell, P

New Additions

The newest additions to our Cubs top-20 are the three aforementioned top-75 selections in the most recent draft. You can view their scouting reports from our draft day profiles on each of them (by clicking on the hyperlinks below).

• Cade Townsend
• Caden Sorrell
• Myles Bailey

Only Sorrel has joined an affiliate, as Townsend is coming off a full year of pitching in the SEC while Bailey is still recovering from an injury. All three are fun upside plays, and Sorrell so far is looking fun in small doses. The strikeout rate is elevated at Low-A, sitting just under 30%, but that isn't surprising based on his draft profile. Much of the work there will likely be swing-related and will happen over the offseason. Now is as much about acclimatization as it is results. 

Outside of the draftees, Jose Escobar is our other new addition to the top-20 list. Escobar, 21, is a former international free agent signing out of Venezuela in the 2022 cycle. Despite being unheralded at the time, the kid has just kept hitting and hasn't stopped yet, earning a promotion mid-year in 2026 to High-A South Bend. Escobar is a smaller-framed outfielder, listed at 5'8" and 165lbs (this information is likely well out of date now) who has managed to not allow his size to slow him down, posting a 123 wRC+ on the season as a whole. He's managed some solid data across the board as well as promising reports of his exit velocities, which make you think there's more power to tap into. His left-handed swing is quite pretty and it wouldn't be the craziest thing for him to slide under the prospect radar like Pedro Ramirez did only to explode one day. He's one to keep an eye on for the future.

Prospects on the Rise

Escobar isn't the only prospect who's seen their stock jump. There's no better example of a prospect with a rocket ship attached to their back than catcher Owen Ayers. The former 19th-round pick out of Marshal has really forced the Cubs' hands this year, screaming through High-A and Double-A already; he could be in line for a 2026 promotion in September. The organization has treated him like a top-50 (or so) prospect and is very high on him and the numbers have backed this up. Really, the only knock is that he's already 25 years old. 

A pair of 2025-draftees also have their arrow pointing up, as Kane Kepley and Ethan Conrad are both making late bids to be on top-100 lists entering the 2027 season. Both have been recently promoted, Kepley to Double-A Knoxville and Conrad to High-A South Bend, on merit and both are showing the flashes of brilliance that caused the Cubs to select them in the top-60 last season. They're prospects who certainly look to have an MLB future and by the end of 2027, it wouldn't be insane to think they will both be knocking on door of being called up and realizing that possibility. 

Prospects Whose Stock Has Fallen

Jaxon Wiggins hasn't had a very smooth 2026. After missing a good chunk of last year due to injury, Wiggins started this year on the IL as well. Since returning, he's really struggled with command of his pitches. More troubling has been his lack of velocity; routinely hitting 98-100mph last year even late into games. there have been days this year he's sat 95 and below. While it looked like this time last year he would be a possibility to help the Cubs in Chicago sometime this season, that timeline has been moved back.

Two other pitchers have their stock somewhat in limbo due to current injury concerns as well in Kaleb Wing and Will Sanders. Wing, another 2025 draftee has had a major setback: the dreaded Tommy John surgery. We'll have to wait until (likely) 2028 to see the talented rookie again, so while he looked excellent in what we got to see of him this year, his future breakout will have to wait. Will Sanders, another pitcher, was also placed on the 60-day IL, though his injury cause is more cloudy as there have been no reports on what the cause of the ailment is. Sanders looked like he might be on the precipice himself of an MLB debut, but that won't happen this year. Hopefully he'll avoid the same fate as Wing and that will only delay his debut until next season.

Overall Thoughts on the System

This year was always going to be a season in which the name of the game was "transition." The Cubs were already moving from a system with a lot of talent near the MLB to one that was much more speculative and concentrated in the lower levels. Add in a draft and a trade deadline that threw a ton of moving parts into the mix, and it's very much in flux like we all thought it would be.

This can be seen just from the variety in our lists. There is Josiah Hartshorn who is the consensus best prospect, a lot of players in that second or third tier where you can rank them in almost any order (for example, I personally have Owen Ayers No. 2 with Wiggins down at fourth) and then a host of prospects you can rank anywhere between, say, tenth to 30th. In other words, it's murky and we all have opinions. 

The positive is that we're seeing some of those prospects bubble up just below the surface which will allow some more clarity next season. A few 2026 draftees have hit the ground running; pitchers Chase Meyer (ninth round) and Luke Alwood (10th round) have already found their way to Myrtle Beach and have looked promising. Jose Escobar has become quite interesting in South Bend and continues to hit. Derniche Valdez wears glasses now and strikes out less. There are good things happening. 

There will be some who view the losses at the deadline as crippling, and they have that right. Losing a prospect like Jefferson Rojas is never easy, and pitchers like Mason McGwire were starting to look like potential steals. The prospect list will likely look very different 365 days from now due to promotions, another draft and another deadline, but this feels like a system that is on the right track (in my humble opinion) on the whole, even if they lost some fun players along the way.

View full article

[JBears79]

As a Fernando Cruz truther, I'm happy to see you have him at 19. Hoping next season is a breakout.

[Jason Ross]

37 minutes ago, JBears79 said:

As a Fernando Cruz truther, I'm happy to see you have him at 19. Hoping next season is a breakout.

One of these IFA bonus babies have to hit. Right?!