NEWSLETTER
I saw this tweet from Tommy Birch, who covers the Iowa Cubs, and I really liked what I was seeing:
The reason I like that note so much, is that it would be a pretty significant uptick in Moises Ballesteros’s starts behind the plate. At Double-A earlier this year, his time was split almost exactly 50/50 between catcher on the one hand, and first base/DH on the other (mostly DH). If he actually started catching four out of every six games, that’s a big bump.
If the Cubs are increasing Ballesteros’s workload behind the plate – at the highest level of the minors, working with a number of big league and big-league-adjacent pitchers – it strongly suggests the organization is committed to REALLY trying to make it work for him behind the plate. And you know the value there, as a Ballesteros (20-year-old raking at Double-A/Triple-A) type who is bat only is maybe a top-75 to top-100 prospect. But a Ballesteros type who can be even an average big league catcher? That’s probably a TOP TEN prospect in baseball. It’s just an enormous, enormous difference in value.
At present, FanGraphs has him ranked 77th, MLB Pipeline has him 90th, and Baseball America has him 62nd. It’s working backwards, but where those numbers move after all the reports come in following the season is probably going to tell us everything we need to know about whether the industry believes Ballesteros can catch long-term.
I’m not saying it’ll definitely work out long-term – the position questions exist for a reason – but the only way to know is if you really commit at a developmental age. The bat being so freaking good has been a complicating factor, since you have to keep challenging it (with promotions) without overwhelming his development behind the plate (it gets harder and harder up the ladder as pitcher stuff gets better and better). So I’m just glad to hear the Cubs believe it’s even worth trying to this degree. It’s a positive sign about what he’s shown behind the plate so far this year.
Offensively, Moises Ballesteros just keeps on hitting, going .375/.375/.625 so far at Iowa. He’s been at Triple-A for only six games and 24 plate appearances, so I won’t go too far just yet, but it’s funny that his wRC+ exactly matches the one he put up at Double-A (154). That was a monster number at Double-A for a 20-year-old, and if he ACTUALLY duplicated it in the second half at Iowa, it’d really be something special. (Especially because THE WAY he gets his production simply looks so credible, projectable, and sustainable: takes his walks, doesn’t strike out, hits the ball in the air, the power numbers aren’t sneakily coming from speed, the BABIP is normal, etc.)
More from Birch on Ballesteros here:
Ballesteros says his goal initially was to reach Triple-A this year, but now it’s to reach the big leagues. I wouldn’t rule it out, given the way he’s hitting. Still, he’s so young, he’s not Rule 5 Draft eligible until after next season, and the Cubs may feel like he’s getting enough developmental work at Iowa this year to outweigh the value his bat would add at the big league level (down the stretch of a season where the Cubs might’ve fallen off anyway). We’ll see. Wouldn’t rule it out, wouldn’t guarantee it.
