Maybe this a fan-driven narrative, but this has certainly been entertaining to watch for Chicago Cubs fans.
The Cubs acquired outfield prospect Kevin Alcántara in the summer of 2021, when the team sold off several players from their MLB roster at the trade deadline. The young outfielder came over from the New York Yankees along with right-handed pitcher Alexander Vizcaino for fan-favorite Anthony Rizzo. It was a tough pill to swallow then and the impact of losing a good first baseman is still being felt by the Cubs today, but at least Alcántara is doing his best to bring optimism about his future with this team.
Prior to last year, rookie ball was the highest level Alcántara had reached and as a 19-year-old to begin the 2022 season, he played in 112 games with the Myrtle Beach Pelicans at low A-Ball. The tall, right-handed hitter crushed 15 home runs and slashed .273/.360/.451. Good numbers across the board in a tough hitting environment that led to a 124 wRC+.
Alcántara definitely got his name on the national radar, as he entered the 2023 season in a couple of top-100 prospects lists. On MLB Pipeline's pre-season, top-100 list, Alcántara ranked 87th, while Baseball America slotted him at 91st.
The 20-year-old was assigned to the South Bend Cubs in the Midwest League at advanced A-Ball to begin the 2023 season. Although it's still Single-A, Alcántara is playing with and against players who are on average at least two years older. His first month in South Bend was decent, posting a 110 wRC+ in 19 games.
And then the month of May happened. There's no way around this, it was horrible for Alcántara, as he only posted a 39 wRC+ and .498 OPS in 88 plate appearances. He wasn't taking any walks, striking out a lot and obviously all his numbers took a steep decline. But again, it was just one bad month.
Well, after 189 plate appearances, the prospect evaluators over at Baseball America had apparently seen enough to determine Alcántara was no longer deserving of top-100 status.
On June 7, Baseball American released its updated top-100 prospects list. Alcántara went from 91st to off the list.
Hmmm. All right.
However, MLB Pipeline's re-ranking was even worse. They update their top-100 list as soon as players graduate from prospect status and before their latest re-ranking, Alcántara had made it up to 68th.
Well, on June 25, MLB Pipeline released an updated list and Alcántara went from 68th to completely out of the top-100.
Absolutely crazy.
Well, it turns out that Kevin Alcántara is actually a good prospect.
Here's what the 20-year-old has done at the plate since the start of June through July 6.
26 Games, 109 Plate Appearances
.330/.404/.536, .940 OPS, 167 wRC+
4 HR, 21 RBI, 17 R, 6 2B, 1 3B, 26 K, 12 BB
23.9 K%, 11 BB%
That brings us to Friday night, when Alcántara continued his rampage at the plate against the Peoria Chiefs. The outfielder went 2-for-5, crushing a solo home run and then a game-tying grand slam in the fifth inning.
Including Friday, Alcántara has played in eight games since he went from the 68th best prospect to un-ranked by MLB Pipeline. Here are his stats in those eight games.
11-for-29, (.379 batting average) 3 HR, 12 RBI, 8 R, 3 Doubles, 1 Triple
Alcántara now has a 12-game hitting streak and a 16-game on-base streak that started on June 17.
Yeah, I kinda do wish that he took it personally. Just makes it a little more fun.
