At MLB.com, Jonathan Mayo is polling executives across all 30 MLB organizations to get the industry sense on the best prospects in the games. Previously, we discussed their results with respect to favorites for Rookie of the Year (go, Matt Shaw!), but they went way deeper in Parts II and III. And I want to share the current and former Cubs prospects who’ve been called out. I’m not getting into all of it, so go check out the original series and come back.
The first – and most shocking – thing I noticed was that Cam Smith, the Cubs 2024 first-rounder who was just traded to the Astros in the deal for Kyle Tucker, “also received votes” as … THE NO. 1 PROSPECT IN BASEBALL. Wow. I don’t regret that trade, and we already knew Smith was well-liked and on his way up. But still. It’s striking to see that anyone thought of him as the best prospect in baseball. Let’s just hope that was one vote and that one vote comes from the Astros front office …. Unsurprisingly, based on the above, Smith also received votes as the best-hitting prospect in baseball. I don’t want to oversell the love he’s getting – Smith received votes along with 15 other prospects – including Matt Shaw! – but again. Pretty striking. Cade Horton pops up on the list of best pitching prospects in baseball, trailing only five other players. And in this case, it’s not in the “also received votes” department. According to MLB Pipeline, 4.2% of the polled executives believe Horton is the best pitching prospect in baseball. That’s neat. In terms of the best defensive prospects in baseball, Pete Crow-Armstrong topped the list in each of the last two years but was obviously ineligible this time around. No other Cubs prospects (current or former) made the cut. In terms of the most underrated prospect in baseball, 34 players were mentioned. And once again, Cam Smith makes the cut, tied for the third most underrated prospect in baseball. A metric ton of prospects were named as the potential breakout prospect of the year, including Cade Horton and Cam Smith (in the “also received votes” category). But the No. 1 prospect chosen, with 11.4% of the vote? Former Cubs farmhand Zyhir Hope, who was dealt to the Dodgers as part of the trade for Michael Busch. Once again, I don’t regret that trade, because Hope is merely a 19-year-old A-ball prospect and Busch is already succeeding at the big league level on both sides of the ball and at a position of need. But clearly, these execs believe the Dodgers and Astros picked their Cubs prospects wisely. A fun, smaller category tried to identify which pitching prospect is the best future closer, and the Cubs’ 2023 second-round pick, Jaxon Wiggins, received some love. Wiggins is still starting at the moment, but maybe his particular skillset (a 65-grade fastball and a 55-grade slider, control questions) leads some to believe he’ll make the conversion to the pen. That said, he also features a 50-grade curveball and 50-grade changeup, so I’d probably stick with him in the rotation for as long as possible.After ranking prospects as players, Jonathan Mayo followed up with a poll of the best prospect TOOLS, in particular, and a number of Cubs shine in this respect.
All in all, it’s nice to see the love for Cade Horton and Matt Shaw (the Cubs’ top two prospects) and a little scary to see how absolutely adored Zyhir Hope and Cam Smith have become. Though I do wish the rest of the Cubs system – which features another 5+ top-100 prospect types – get more attention.
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