The Top 20 Chicago Cubs Player Assets of 2025: Part 2 (Nos. 11-15)

You can get a full explanation for the parameters used to develop this list in our intro post, but the short version is this. We're answering the question: which current players in the organization are most indispensable to fulfilling the vision of building a champion? To rank Cubs players and prospects, I will be accounting for age, contract, controllability, upside, and more. 

I’ll remind everyone that, while the 2025 season matters for a Cubs team that should win their division, this ranking is about the future as much as it is the present. Players with advancing age or waning team control won’t get as much love here as they would in a narrower time frame.

Here’s how the list has shaken out so far in Part 1 (16-20):

20. Luke Little, RP
19. Jordan Wicks, SP
18. Miguel Amaya, C
17. James Triantos, 2B/3B
16. Kyle Tucker, RF

Without further ado, let’s continue into the top 15 of our list.

15. Ian Happ, Left Fielder
Opening Day Age: 30
Controlled Through: 2026
Contract Status: Three Years, $60 Million

Over the last three seasons, there has been no player on the Cubs who has been more consistent than Happ. Yet, in that same time frame, it feels like Happ is the streakiest player on the team.

Entrenched in left field as the surefire starter, Happ has developed into a three-time Gold Glove outfielder who produces consistent production at the plate. Since debuting in 2017, his OPS has never exceeded .898, nor has it finished below .757. His wRC+ in that time tells a similar story, bottoming out at 106 in 2018 and topping out at 132 in 2020. He’s also extremely durable, playing in 148-plus games in each of the past four seasons.

Now on the wrong side of 30, Happ is closer to the end of his prime than the beginning of it, though his increasing exit velocity numbers (76th percentile in 2024) and above-average plate discipline (12.2% walk rate) paint the picture of a player who should age gracefully, especially in left field. He has just two years remaining on his current contract, though it wouldn’t shock me to see the Cubs reach another multi-year agreement with him next offseason to keep him in Chicago for the duration of his career. With or without another deal, though, Happ’s consistent, veteran presence in the lineup is a valuable asset for the team as it enters a key two-year stretch.

14. Nico Hoerner, Second Baseman
Opening Day Age: 27
Controlled Through: 2026
Contract Status: Three Years, $35 Million

Hoerner, much like Happ, has been a stalwart on the Cubs since making his big-league debut in 2019. They’re similarly valuable players, though Hoerner’s cheaper contract and youthful exuberance give him the edge over Happ in these rankings.

The second baseman is as good as it gets defensively at the keystone position, and he should have more Gold Gloves in him before his career is over. His offensive upside is less than Happ’s, simply because he doesn’t have 20-plus home run power, but he offers more ways to contribute thanks to his excellent bat-to-ball skills and solidly above-average speed (71 steals over the past two seasons). It speaks to Hoerner’s well-rounded profile that his wRC+ has finished somewhere between 103 and 106 in every season since 2021, and yet he’s accumulated 14.2 bWAR in 480 games in that same time frame.

Also like Happ, Hoerner is threatened by the presence of rising prospects in the Cubs’ farm system, including James Triantos and the gaggle of young shortstops at the lower levels of the minor leagues. Hoerner’s floor is as high as anyone in the organization’s, though the Cubs may opt for more ceiling when the likes of Jefferson Rojas or Fernando Cruz are ready.

13. Seiya Suzuki, Right Fielder/Designated Hitter
Opening Day Age: 30
Controlled Through: 2026
Contract Status: Five Years, $85 Million

Yet another veteran whose contract expires after 2026, Suzuki has the highest offensive upside between him, Hoerner, and Happ. His OPS and wRC+ have steadily increased in each of his three seasons Stateside, maxing out in 2024 at .848 and 138, respectively. Outside of a strikeout rate that climbed to 27.4% this past season, Suzuki has improved nearly every part of his game since first joining the Cubs. Case in point: his bWAR in 2024 was a career-high 3.5.

That said, Suzuki hasn’t evolved into a true middle-of-the-order threat. He hit 21 home runs this past season over 132 games, which marked a new high point for him. And, unlike the previous two entrants on this list, Suzuki is not a sterling defender. He did win five NPB Golden Glove Awards, but he’s struggled in the cavernous right field depths of Wrigley Field and will spend most of his time as a designated hitter in 2025, with Kyle Tucker, Pete Crow-Armstrong, and Happ all penciled into starting outfield spots.

Besides Tucker, there may be no hitter more important to the 2025 iteration of the Cubs. Beyond that, it’s hard to say how long Suzuki will be in Chicago, especially with his apparent displeasure over the role shift to DH.

12. Kevin Alcántara, Outfielder
Opening Day Age: 22
Controlled Through: 2030
Contract Status: Pre-Arb

Already on the 40-man roster and having made his MLB debut at the tail end of the 2024 season, Alcántara is the only prospect on today’s shortlist, but don’t mistake his greenness for a lack of talent.

One of three star youngsters the Cubs have positioned to man the outfield in the long term (along with Crow-Armstrong and Owen Caissie), Alcántara is an athletic, 6’6” 22-year-old with true five-tool potential. In 111 games across Double-A Tennessee and Triple-A Iowa in 2024, he slashed .278/.353/.428 with 14 home runs and 14 stolen bases. His 29.2% strikeout rate is concerning, but someone with his long levers and lanky frame is always going to be prone to strikeouts.

Barring another move by the front office, Alcántara and Alexander Canario are the next men up in the outfield should one of the starters get hurt. Suzuki can fill in in the corners, but Crow-Armstrong has no true backup on the 40-man except Alcántara. Early 2025 will likely see him split time between the big leagues and Triple A, but don’t forget that Alcántara is one of the most important pieces of the Cubs’ future.

11. Ben Brown, Starting Pitcher
Opening Day Age: 25
Controlled Through: 2029
Contract Status: Pre-Arb

You can never have enough pitching, which is why I’ve sort of surprised myself with a position player-heavy lineup in these first two installments of the 2025 asset rankings. That will surely change moving forward, and where better to start than with Ben Brown?

Brown was an intriguing prospect from the moment the Cubs acquired him in exchange for David Robertson at the 2022 trade deadline. Armed with a lively fastball and hammer curveball, Brown has the arsenal and frame (6’6”, 210 lbs) needed to dominate at the highest level.

In 2023, exclusively in the upper levels of the minor leagues (Double-A and Triple-A), Brown posted an impressive stat line: 26 G, 19 GS, 92.2 IP, 73 H, 57 BB, 130 K, 4.27 ERA, 1.40 WHIP. There was some clamoring for him to come up at the end of the year as a hard-throwing reliever, but a different injury muddled those hopes. The Cubs resisted the noise and kept stretching him out as a starting pitcher over the offseason.

The choice was the right one, as Brown pitched to a 3.58 ERA in 55 ⅓ innings last season in the big leagues. If you toss away his awful debut in the season’s opening series against the Texas Rangers—when he allowed six earned runs in just 1 ⅔ innings—Brown was outright dominant in 2024, pitching to a 2.68 ERA and 2.80 FIP. He struck out 10.4 batters per nine innings, while only allowing 3.1 walks per nine. His ground-ball percentage of 38.7% was subpar, but he did a solid job of keeping the ball in the park (8.1% home run to fly ball ratio), and earned every bit of his 115 ERA+ (i.e., Brown was 15% better than the league average pitcher this season, adjusting for each stadium).

Unfortunately, his season ended due to a neck injury suffered in June. If he’s healthy moving forward, he’s one the highest-upside arms in the entire organization, with the potential to be a solid No. 2 or excellent No. 3 starter if things break right. The Cubs have a lot of rotation depth heading into next season, but few of those starters possess Brown’s potential.

Check back on Friday for the next installment, covering our picks for No. 6 through 10!