After a very solid May and a decent start to June, fans were buying into the idea that the Chicago Cubs were contenders this season and that they should buy at the deadline, despite a majority of their core players being in their walk year. After the Cubs combined no-hitter of the Los Angeles Dodgers on June 24th, it really seemed that way.
What immediately followed was an 11-game losing streak where the Cubs’ pitching blew up. The offense had its moments but every time they did, the pitching blew it. Then on July 8th, team president Jed Hoyer alluded to the idea that they’ll be looking to sell at the deadline.
https://twitter.com/MLBastian/status/1413252933001654276?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Even though this golden era of Chicago Cubs baseball might be coming to an end, there are two superstar prospects in the farm system to be excited about. Albeit it will be a little while before one of these two prospects gets the call to the majors.
Cristian Hernandez was one of the top prospects from this past year’s international signing class and the Cubs, who had been linked to him for plenty of time, were able to sign him. At 17 years old, he is already 6? 2? and he has drawn comparisons to Carlos Correa with his power. If that comparison doesn’t excite fans, then his nickname might, “Baby A-Rod”. He has drawn comparisons to Alex Rodriguez and Manny Machado.
Just watch his tape from Baseball America:
[embedded content]
From MLB.com, his grades as a prospect (scale of 20-80) are:
Hit – 55
Power -55
Run – 60
Arm – 55
Field – 55
Overall – 55
Moving on to another Cubs prospect who looks to be a star when he makes his debut, which will be much sooner than Hernandez, is Brennen Davis. Davis is an outfielder that the team drafted with the 62nd overall pick in the 2018 MLB amateur draft.
His size projects well for an outfielder his size at 6? 4?/210. He has upside that some say could make him a 30-30 guy in the majors if he pans out. He has added plenty of muscle and he is estimated to be in the majors in 2022. In his career in the minors, he has slashed .295/.389/.878 with 14 home runs. In four different stages of the minors (rookie, low A, high A, and AA), he has a wRC+ of 132, 160, 171, and 138, respectively.
[embedded content]
Cubs fans will likely have a hard time seeing guys like Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, and Javier Baez in different jerseys after they helped bring a World Series back to the north side of Chicago. But there still is plenty of excitement coming out of the Cubs minor league system and fans should be excited for those players.