NEWSLETTER
The Chicago Cubs’ Double-A squad at Tennessee deserved a special shout this morning. It’s not just that they won their game over the Milwaukee Brewers’ Double-A affiliate, and it’s not just that they beat up on the organization’s best pitching prospect to do it. It’s also that they have had a lot of really fun prospect performances lately that I have been wanting to highlight anyway.
In the 8-6 win, the Tennessee Smokies notched 14 hits, including 4 home runs. Most of the damage came off of Jacob Misiorowski, a top-30-overall prospect, considered one of the best starting pitching prospects in the game, and the Brewers’ top prospect. He had a sub-3 ERA before the game, and now it’s near-4. Nicely done, Smokies.
James Triantos hit one of those homers, extending a seven-game hitting streak, and continuing one of the quietly hottest stretches in the organization:
Triantos, 21, is hitting .306/.338/.461/134 wRC+ on the season, with the highest ISO (.155) and lowest strikeout rate (10.4%) of his professional career thus far. Seems pretty good when you’re at your highest level yet and quite young for the league.
Another top Cubs prospect who homered in the game, who is even younger than Triantos and hitting even better, was Moises Ballesteros:
Ballesteros, the third youngest player in all of Double-A, is now hitting .289/.368/.467/146 wRC+, with a 10.5% BB, a 15.3% K, and a .178 ISO. His wRC+ is near 200 over the last two weeks.
The third prospect to homer off of Misiorowski was Christian Franklin, a guy who struggled initially last year, made some significant changes to his swing and approach, and exploded at High-A. The 24-year-old plus defensive center fielder once again struggled to open the season, this time at Double-A, and then once again exploded. Since the start of May, Franklin is hitting .306/.390/.424/144 wRC+ with good peripherals. Because of early injuries in his professional career, he’s on the older side for a prospect at Double-A, so you’d love to see him continue to rake. The outfield group at Double-A and Triple-A is obviously quite crowded, so carving out regular playing time is tricky. But Franklin is a legit potential big leaguer, even if in a fourth/fifth outfielder role.
Lastly, Haydn McGeary homered later in the game, which I was glad to see for any reason, but especially for McGeary.
The 2023 breakout slugger has had a brutal go of it in 2024, despite having hit very well at Double-A last year in over 100 games. The thinking coming into the year was that McGeary would absolutely rake at Double-A, and force the Cubs to make room for him at Triple-A early in the year. That obviously did not happen, but at least McGeary is finally starting to heat up. He’s been above-average overall since the start of May, and he’s been hitting for a ton more power the last couple weeks. The strikeout rate is still over 30%, though, and that’ll be a big concern going forward, even if he continues to produce in spite of it.
The other extra-base hits in the game were a double each for Yohendrick Pinango and Luis Verdugo.
Pinango, you’ll recall, destroyed High-A to open the season, and the 22-year-old outfielder got the bump to Double-A in mid-May. After some struggles the first two weeks, Pinango has hit .273/.333/.455/133 wRC+ since May 26.
Verdugo, 23, is a very good defensive third base prospect who hit solidly at High-A last year. He’s hitting .303/.329.401/116 wRC+ this year at Double-A, albeit with a .359 BABIP that is probably doing a bit too much of the driving. Then again, when you hit line drives at a 27.1% rate, you’re going to have an elevated BABIP!
