The Best Outfielder in Cubs System Hasn't Been Pete Crow-Armstrong so far in 2023

Do not get this confused with me being down on Pete Crow-Armstrong or even suggesting anything negative about him, but I'm using PCA as reference because he is regarded as the team's best prospect and even the player I'm bringing up does not have the skillset that PCA has. That being said, we have to start talking about 20-year-old outfielder Owen Caissie as one of the most impressive prospects so far in 2023 for the Cubs.

Both left-handed hitting outfielders are regular starters for the Double-A Tennessee Smokies and because Crow-Armstrong is having his first real slump in a while, Caissie's offensive numbers tower above the organization's number one prospect. Again, this is purely about Caissie's development at the plate so far in 2023. And yes, it is important to point out that Caissie is only 20-years-old because he's usually facing pitchers at least 2-3 years older than he is at this level.

Entering Thursday night's game, Caissie had a slash line of .299/.395/.598. That's good for a .993 OPS that's powered by seven home runs, six doubles, a triple and a 13.2 BB% in 114 plate appearances. That's special stuff from Caissie and on Wednesday night, he reached a rare feat in professional baseball.

With two outs and two runners on, Caissie obliterated the first pitch he saw in the fifth inning from right-handed pitcher Cole Wilcox, a top-10 prospect in the Tampa Bay Rays farm system.

You don't have to be an expert to know that Caissie's home run was hit hard, but this truly was one of the hardest hit balls of the entire season at any level.

Heading into Thursday's slate of games, only two players in MLB have hit a ball above 117mph, Willson Contreras (117.5mph) and Matt Olson (118.6mph) according to Statcast. Since the start of 2015, so the past nine MLB seasons, there have been a total of 61 total balls hit with an exit velocity at or above 117mph among qualified hitters.

In other words, hitting a ball that hard isn't just a regular occurrence. Not everyone can do that.

So far in 2023, Caissie has a 30.2 line drive percentage. Consistently making hard contact goes a long way towards putting up good results and Caissie has been rewarded, ranking first in the Southern League with a .299 ISO, while his .598 slugging percentage also ranks at the very top of the league.

Caissie will celebrate his 21st birthday on July 8.

This past offseason, Caissie only made one top prospect list, ranking 80th in Baseball Prospectus' top-101. We should definitely start to see Caissie's name show up in more top prospect lists later this season, when different outlets update their rankings.

For a while it looked like the Yu Darvish trade after the 2020 season to the San Diego Padres was going to be a complete bust for the Chicago Cubs, but Owen Caissie is now rising in the system and he will be regarded as one of the best prospects in baseball soon.