I haven't really paid too much attention to prospect rankings during the month of July as the Chicago Cubs have been fighting for first place in the division, but there's something very noticeable in a few of these lists. A lot of times these rankings are arbitrary and when we see trades that involve prospects the number next to their name can often be deceiving.
But I guess they do give fans some idea of how teams may view these minor leaguers and well a few of these updated lists may shock Cubs fans.
MLB Pipeline is probably the go-to site for fans to check on prospects and the list there has been fairly consistent for the Cubs. Owen Caissie has been the top-rated minor league player on the farm system ever since Matt Shaw and Cade Horton graduated from prospect status, while catcher/DH Moises Ballesteros has been close behind.
MLB Pipeline: top Cubs prospects
- Owen Caissie (No. 36)
- Moises Ballesteros (No. 47)
- Jefferson Rojas (No. 57)
- Kevin Alcántara (No. 76)
- Jaxon Wiggins (No. 91)
Just Baseball also released an updated list on Tuesday and the rankings among the young Cubs are similar with Caissie at the top.
Caissie has been on fire for the past month, posting a 1.117 OPS with 12 home runs during his last 30 games. The 23-year-old is in his second season at Triple-A and has been the subject to trade rumors since last offseason. At one point it appeared as though the left-handed slugger was going to the Miami Marlins in exchange for Jesus Luzardo.
Now, as the trade deadline nears for the Cubs, fans might automatically put Caissie as the most desired prospect in the farm system, but maybe that's not actually the perception around the league?
Following the MLB Draft in mid-July, Kiley McDaniel updated his prospect rankings on ESPN. He released the top-10 players in each minor league system and Caissie wasn't No. 1 for the Cubs according to McDaniel.
Cubs Top-10 Prospects (ESPN)
- Moises Ballesteros
- Kevin Alcántara
- Jefferson Rojas
- Owen Caissie
- Ethan Conrad
- Jaxon Wiggins
- Jonathon Long
- Brandon Birdsell
- Cristian Hernandez
- Josiah Hartshorn
Caissie didn't even crack the top-three on ESPN, while Alcántara made it up second and Wiggins slid down to six. However, that's not even the most drastic update we've seen in July.
FanGraphs updated its top-100 prospects list and Eric Longenhagen doesn't even have Caissie or Ballesteros in the rankings. The lead prospect analyst at FanGraphs ranks three Cubs among the best 100 prospects, but you'd never guess who the highest-rated one is.
But that's not even the best ranking for Kevin Alcántara this summer because The Athletic's Keith Law updated his rankings last week and he had Alcántara at No. 27 in his top-60 list. By the way, Law ranked Ballesteros No. 34, and Caissie was not among the group of 60 on Law's list.
Oh, but then you look at Baseball America and Alcántara isn't even in their top-100 list.
Maybe this is actually a great thing for the Cubs. They might have just enough diversity in their farm system that attracts a wide variety of interest across the league that could also have wildly different perceptions of the prospects similar to these distinct rankings.
