This was my thought too. The deadline had passed to re-classify but Grindlinger got a special exemption. Wonder if the rumors of getting rid of prep draft picks in future years spurred him on.
Will Gasparino - who was a top 100 prospect coming out of high school - has 3 home runs in his last 2 games.
(Roch Cholowsky also has 2 more HRs today.)
18 scouting directors from MLB clubs gave their opinion on the 2026 draft: https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/how-scouting-departments-grade-the-2026-mlb-draft-class/
BA added their 31st-40th best prospect for every team. The Cubs:
31. Ethan Flanagan
32. Alexey Lumpuy
33. Grant Kipp
34. Jack Neely
35. Eli Lovich
36. Connor Noland
37. Kade Snell
38. Yahil Melendez
39. Brett Bateman
40. Eli Jerzembeck
Yeah, we can say prospect fatigue but the struggles against sliders is very real and very glaring. Big league pitchers will eat up such a big hole in his game. He’s now going on his 4th and final option so he also has little runway left to fix it.