Cory Sparks

Image courtesy of © Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images Now that we're beyond the annual sample-size caveats of April, Kane Kepley is growing impossible to ignore. The team’s No. 7 overall prospect (per North Side Baseball) is off to a very strong start to his 2026 campaign. Let’s dive into his skillset, what he’s been up to lately, and how long we’ll have to wait before he breaks into the major leagues. Kane Kepley’s Background For starters, Kepley was Chicago’s second-round pick in the 2025 MLB Draft. The Cubs selected the outfield prospect at 56th overall. He was originally a walk-on before topping Conference UCA with 53 walks drawn and 25 stolen bags for Liberty before earning an All-Star nod in the Cape Cod summer baseball league. He then transferred to North Carolina to become a Tar Heel, where he led the ACC in strikeout rate at just 7% and stole 45 bags. Kepley wasted no time getting his licks in at the professional level, as he hit .299 over 28 games at Low-A Myrtle Beach after being drafted last year. The Ideal Contact Hitter In terms of his strengths, the hit tool and speed pop right out at you immediately. It’s what scouts notice, it’s what drew North Carolina in, and ultimately it caught the Cubs’ attention enough for them to pick him late in the second round last year. He’s currently operating with a .298 career batting average, and he already has five triples in just 58 pro contests, now including some time in High-A South Bend, where the 22-year-old started this season. Arguably the most impressive part of his game, to me, is that stinginess that we just mentioned from his college days. It has followed him into the professional ranks, as he’s sporting an on-base percentage just below .500. Building off of that? He has 61 walks to just 35 strikeouts. Any time a prospect can walk as much as they strike out, it’s a great sign. This isn’t even close. He also has 39 stolen bags while only being caught on five occasions In terms of how Kepley is performing in High-A so far, let's start here: He had a game on May 15 where he racked up four hits AND four stolen bases in just one contest. This was his first four-hit game of the season, though likely not his last. I think you’re figuring out pretty quickly why this guy has earned a 60-grade for his hit tool and a 60-grade for his run tool. And that speed translates to him being a strong fielder; Kepley has plenty of range in South Bend’s outfield. Weaknesses In regards to parts of his game that are bringing up the rear, Kepley doesn’t have the strongest arm, but it’s serviceable in center field, and his ability to cover a lot of ground in not a ton of time can compensate for that. His power tool doesn’t have much to it either, since he hasn’t generated a ton of above average exit velocities and is already 22 years of age, but that isn’t really his game. This is someone who can cover ground fast and will use that to impact the game on both offense and defense. MLB ETA When will we see Kane Kepley debut in the major leagues? We’ve brought this situation up before as it pertains to Kevin Alcantara, but with Pete Crow-Armstrong locking down in center field and both Ian Happ and Seiya Suzuki in contract years, we’re kind of in a wait-and-see scenario. In terms of Kepley’s overall ability, I wouldn’t be shocked if he gets up there by the final sprint of the 2027 season since he is 22, looks advanced compared to his peers, and does have multiple college baseball seasons under his belt. An outfield featuring him and Crow-Armstrong would be among the fastest and most dynamic in recent history. View full article

The Cubs' seventh-ranked prospect, Kane Kepley, is on an absolute tear to start his 2026 campaign. With wicked speed, a knack for getting favorable jumps on the bases, and an approach that has led to almost double the amount of walks to strikeouts in his pro career, this video breaks down why Kepley could be a fast riser up Chicago's pipeline. View full video

Image courtesy of © Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images The Chicago Cubs are off to a remarkable start to the 2026 season. The team as a whole has put together a pair of 10-game win streaks, and Craig Counsell has done a spectacular job managing this squad. There are also a few players who haven’t been named All-Stars yet that are pushing for the first bids in their career. Nico Hoerner Fresh off of earning a six-year, $141 million extension with the team that drafted him, Nico Hoerner got off to a red-hot start to this year. Chicago’s second baseman has four home runs, 29 runs batted in and holds at least a .260 batting average for the seventh time in eight seasons with the North Siders. Diving a bit further, his hand-eye coordination and approach at the plate have been top-tier. Hoerner’s whiff rate (10.3%) and strikeout rate (7.9%) are both in the 99th percentile among hitters. The 29-year-old’s 8.9% walk rate is a tad below the league average, but it’s higher than his strikeout rate to this point, which is an outrageous accomplishment in 2026. Hoerner’s contact-first approach has earned him plenty of respect to start his big league career, but his defense has made headlines as well. The two-time Gold Glover is in a class of his own, logging seven outs above average through the first few weeks of the season. That mark puts him in the 99th percentile among MLB defenders. The Stanford alum has been as reliable as they come, and the leather-flashing and contact-oriented numbers he’s put up to start the 2026 season have only gotten better with time. Ben Brown Not only is Ben Brown putting together a season worthy of an All-Star nod, but he has the chance to form quite the one-year turnaround story. After producing mixed results in his call-up season (2024), Brown struggled mightily in a variety of ways last season. Producing a 5-8 record with a 5.92 earned run average, up two total runs from his mark the year prior, Brown gave up one of the highest average exit velocities (92.4 mph) in baseball, slotting him in the bottom percentile among all qualified pitchers. While his strikeout (25.6%) and whiff (28.3%) rates lived well above the league average, the hard-throwing righty gave up his fair share of pure contact and routinely ran into trouble. This season, the bullpen arm is sporting a 1-1 record, a 1.60 ERA and added a true third pitch. Just a season after utilizing his fastball/knuckle-curve combination 96% of the time, Brown expanded his arsenal. The 26-year-old reliever has mixed in a sinker, an option that rides up and away from lefties, similarly to his four-seamer. Overall, Brown has kept the ball down much more. After allowing average launch angles of 16.2 and 12.7 degrees in the last two seasons, the 7.2 degree mark has allowed a spike in ground ball rate, and therefore, a .196 batting average against. Brown has been one of the more impactful relievers in baseball and could be in the All-Star conversation if he keeps this pace up into the month of July. Seiya Suzuki Seiya Suzuki rounds out this list after making a strong case for himself just last year. The 31-year-old slugger is fresh off of a remarkable 2025 campaign that saw career-best marks in home runs (32), runs batted in (103) and walks (71). Suzuki is seemingly picking up where he left off last year, as his seven home runs in 31 games has him on another promising pace. The Cubs’ masher is seeing the ball very well, sporting a 42% sweet-spot percentage (93rd percentile) while walking 14% of the time (86th percentile). This has allowed his on-base percentage to explode toward the 400 mark, as the righty is developing a keen eye at the plate while also garnering more respect from opposing pitching. The Arakawa, Japan native has a chance to make this a banner season. He currently sits six home runs shy of 100 for his MLB career, could earn his first big-league contract extension and may even add “All-Star” to his already impressive résumé. View full article

Ben Brown's 2026 numbers are night and day from what we saw last season. He has gone from being one of the hardest hit hurlers in baseball to sporting a sub-2 ERA and keeping hitters off balance. What's his key to newfound productivity this season? We dive into it all in this video. View full video

Image courtesy of © Allan Henry-Imagn Images Kevin Alcántara is, at least superficially, posing a good problem for the Chicago Cubs. He's on a power binge for the Triple-A Iowa Cubs this spring. Let's dig into his numbers, and the choices the Cubs have with him. Background If you've been tracking Alcántara's career closely, you already know what his ceiling looks like, but you also know ho9w stubbornly far beneath it he's remained over the last few years. What was missing, to achieve that metaphorical ascent? A literal one. That's what Alcántara's achieving this spring. He's finally launching the ball. There's no slug on the ground, so he's taken his swing and his batted-ball profile to where there's a ton of it. Season Avg. LA Ground % Line Drive % Fly Ball % Pop Up % Pull % Center % Oppo % 2024 5.3° 51.7 25.3 18.4 4.6 48.3 21.8 29.9 2025 9.5° 46.2 24.9 23.3 6.3 40.3 23.7 36 2026 16.9° 32.8 15.6 39.1 12.5 35.9 39.1 25 Alcántara slugged just over .700 on contact in each of his two previous season stints in Triple-A. This year, that number is a mind-boggling (and, admittedly, unsustainable) 1.078. He's become an elite producer of power, at least at the Triple-A level. There's just one problem, and it's exactly what you'd guess, if you've been tracking Alcántara's career closely. Season O-Swing Z-Swing Z-Contact Whiff Rate 2024 32.1 62 80 31.8 2025 31.7 61.3 82.7 30.5 2026 35.1 61.1 73.6 38.6 To get to his power, Alcántara has sacrificed contact, in a profile that had no room for that tradeoff. He's striking out at a rate that would preclude a player from succeeding in the majors, and he's doing it against worse pitchers than they have in the majors. The implication, then, is that he'd strike out over 40% of the time in the big leagues. That's Brett Jackson territory. Alcántara still has to find the happy medium, where he's lifting the ball but can also control the strike zone and make consistent contact. Still, it's exciting to see just how much power he can generate when things go well. He’s also an absolute ball hawk in the outfield, as his 60-grade fielding tool is the highest on his MLB Pipeline scouting report. So what choices do the Cubs have? Let’s go over them. Promote Alcántara They could promote ‘The Jaguar’, but that comes with some complications. A couple of moves have resulted in a domino effect that makes this guy’s point of entry a little tougher. For one, the team locked down one of the best third basemen in the game, Alex Bregman, for the foreseeable future. That pushes sophomore Matt Shaw into (mostly) a corner outfield role. When Shaw is in right field, Seiya Suzuki takes up the DH spot, and then there’s no room for Alcántara. Of course, Alcántara would be behind Moisés Ballesteros on anyone's DH depth chart, anyway, even if Suzuki weren't in the picture. With Ian Happ, Suzuki, Shaw and Ballesteros all playing reasonably well, there's no short-term path to playing time with the parent club. Have Him Change Positions This is a nice little dream, but not much of a potential reality. Alcántara doesn't have any of the skills to play an infield position other than first base, and all of those spots are locked down, anyway. If he could become a solid first baseman, he would fit neatly with Michael Busch as a platoon partner, but that puts a lot of pressure on him to mash lefties and make more contact. It's also far from a guarantee that he can simply slide to that very different position and be above-average. His best defensive fit could be as a platoon partner for Pete Crow-Armstrong, but Crow-Armstrong is the best defensive center fielder in baseball; you usually don't platoon players with that much value in their glove. Keep Him In Iowa For a Little Longer This is the obvious course of action. Beyond simply keeping their powder dry, letting Alcántara continue amassing playing time in Iowa encourages him to keep developing, and avoids ruffling the feathers of any veterans. Happ and Suzuki are both due to be free agents this fall, and it would be no surprise if both land elsewhere. If even one does, playing time will be available in 2027's Cubs outfield, and if Alcántara keeps fixing holes in his game, he could be a candidate for that job. While the team is healthy, though, keeping him in Iowa lets everyone involved stay in rhythm and play every day, and gives Alcántara time to solve that glaring swing-and-miss problem, if possible. Trade the Surplus The last option is to trade Alcántara. Obviously, it’d be great to have a talent of his caliber at Wrigley, but right now, there's almost no chance he would be better than Happ, Suzuki or even Shaw. Power brings mass appeal in 2026, and this guy has plenty of it. The strikeouts have been an issue, but there are plenty of teams who might give up something to gamble on the power potential in Alcántara's bat, especially given his solid defensive platform. Before dealing him, the team would have to feel some confidence that they could re-sign either Suzuki or Happ, or that Shaw can be a regular in a corner come next season. They can't afford to go spend major free-agent dollars on multiple corner bats this winter, and the class looks thin, anyway. For now, Alcántara is an intriguing, enigmatic piece of the Cubs' organizational puzzle. His prospect stock could still skyrocket or plummet, but at the moment, it's holding in a middle range. The upside has never been more apparent. Neither have the warts ever been more prominently on display. There are a lot of ways to resolve this, but for now, the team's plan seems to be to do the obvious thing: wait and see what comes next, from Alcántara and others. View full article

The Chicago Cubs may have a Kevin Alcantara problem. While it may seem odd to say that about somebody who has paced the International League in home runs, the Cubs essentially have four choices on what to do with their mashing third-ranked prospect. They can promote him, help him transition positions, trade him, or have him ride out some contract situations in Triple-A. View full video

These four Cubs prospects are SURGING in April. Jonathon Long's power is yet again on display, Grant Kipp looks like the steady starting option he gained a reputation as in 2025, Pedro Ramirez could break into the majors any month with his hit ability, and Riley Martin has already made an impact with the big league club, suffering some injuries. View full video

The Cubs extended Nico Hoerner on a 6-year, $141 million deal earlier this season. So far, he's putting together his most impressive season yet. In this video, we'll dive into his whiff rate, strikeout rate, walk rate and discuss how his speed leads to above-average base-running and elite defensive range at the second base position. View full video

Former Cubs top prospect Moises Ballesteros is red-hot out of the gates to start the 2026 season. What is contributing to this prolific stretch, and can Ballesteros take home NL Rookie of the Year honors in a crowded field that includes JJ Wetherholt, Konnor Griffin, and more? We break it all down in this video. Enjoy! View full video

Edward Cabrera has been superb as a bright spot in an otherwise injury-riddled rotation. What is the science behind his 1-0 start with a mid-1s ERA? Today, we dive into his electric changeup, high whiff, and chase rate, and how he can keep this momentum going as the 2026 season progresses. Enjoy! View full video

Cubs' starting first baseman Michael Busch is hitting well below .200 to start the 2026 season. While he had an exciting RBI knock in the Cubs' come-from-behind win to cap off a series with the Pirates, will Busch break out of this dry spell? We dove into his advanced analytics to find out how possible that is. Enjoy! View full video

The Chicago Cubs have signed second baseman Nico Hoerner to a six-year, $141 million extension. In this video, we break down everything from Hoerner's reliability to his Gold Gloves and how 2025 was a career year on multiple fronts. Enjoy! View full video

Seiya Suzuki will start the season on the Cubs' Injured List, Craig Counsell announced. Chicago's veteran slugger is a key piece in their starting lineup, and his injury tips over a few dominoes. Suzuki spent the majority of 2025 as the Cubs' designated hitter, which could open up some availability for the squad's top prospect in Moises Ballesteros. He also spent some time in right field, which means a former first-rounder in Matt Shaw may be in line for some more playing time. View full video