The 37 best Chicago Cubs prospects

Below is an analysis of the prospects in the Chicago Cubs farm system. The scouting reports were compiled with information provided by industry sources and our own observations. This is the fifth year we’ve outlined the two intended relief roles, the abbreviations of which you’ll see in the “position” column below: MIRP for multi-inning relief pitchers and SIRP for single-inning relief pitchers. The ETAs listed generally correspond to the year a player must be added to the 40-man roster to avoid being made eligible for the Rule 5 draft. Manual adjustments are made where they seem appropriate, but we use them as a rule of thumb.

A quick overview of what FV (Future Value) means can be found here. A much more in-depth overview can be found here.

All prospects ranked below also appear on The Board, a resource offered by the site containing sortable scouting information for each organization. It contains more detail (and updated TrackMan data from various sources) than this article, and integrates each team’s roster so readers can compare prospects across farming systems. It can be found here.

Other notable perspectives

Grouped by type and listed in order of preference within each category.

Powerful bats, risky contact
Haydn McGeary, 1B
Felix Stevens, 1B/OF
Andy Garriola, OF
Anderson Suriel, OF
Ivan Brethowr, OF

A small-school catcher, McGeary’s pro career hit the ground running as he hit 19 homers in 2023 and posted some of the most impressive outings in the minors. In 2024, he struck out 31% of the time and hit .354. He needs to get back into the 23% strikeout zone. Stevens is an extremely strong 25-year-old Cuban first baseman who has also posted some of the loudest peak exit velocities in all of professional baseball, but is hitting at a 34% clip in the minors. Garriola is a 25-year-old outfielder from Old Dominion who hit 18 bombs in 90 A-ball games before being promoted to High-A in August. Suriel is a medium-sized corner outfield prospect with above-average bat speed. It took him forever to get out of rookie ball, but during that time he developed some pretty great power. Brethowr (who transferred from ASU to UCSB) is a powerful 6-foot-6 right fielder who had 28 bombs in 112 college games.

Wild boys with monster things
JP Grano, RHP
Sam Thoresen, RHP
Jose Romero, RHP

Wheat, 22, is a 6-foot-5 low slot steed who sits 96 and flashes a huge slider. Last year he issued 36 walks in 22.1 innings. An undrafted free agent in 2020 from Minnesota, Thoresen is 95 with an above-average carry and flashes an above-80 slider, but he has 20 or 30 control and has walked nearly a batter per inning in 2024. Romero is a 5 Foot-10, 185 pound right-hander with a 94 mph fastball and positive sweeper. Last year he walked nearly a batter per inning at High-A.

Raiders of the Lost Park (Indy Ball Signatures)
Nico Zeglin, RHP
Connor Schultz, RHP

Zeglin, 24, began his college career at JUCO, then went to Gonzaga and finally landed at Long Beach State, where he had a WHIP under 1.00 as a starter his senior year, but was not still chosen for the draft. Zeglin immediately went to the Pioneer League, where he played for the Rocky Mountain Vibes, man. He signed with the Cubs in 2024 and pitched really well, posting a 0.33 ERA as a High-A reliever during the second half of the season. He is about 91 years old and has excellent gearbox. Schultz, 25, spent four years at Butler, one at Iowa, and then parts of three seasons with the Missoula PaddleHeads, also of the Pioneer League. He signed with the Cubs in 2024 and dominated A-ball for 30 innings, mostly with a good changeup.

Still in development
Erian Rodriguez, RHP
Yovanny Cabrera, RHP
Thomas Mangus, RHP
Daniel Avitia, RHP

The 23-year-old Rodriguez, who like Daniel Espino was born in Panama but attended high school in Georgia, was a 2021 third-round pick from the Georgia Premier Academy. He has a statuesque 6-foot-3 frame and will slam 95-96, albeit with ineffective swings. He entered the rotation during the second half of 2024 and began working more with his secondary stuff. Both his slider and changeup are average and improving. Even though he’s 23 years old, Erian is a good developmental prospect who could break out late.

Cabrera is a 23-year-old right-wing Dominican who is on the fringes of relief prospects. He sat 93-96 in 2024 and has an occasionally good curveball. His command was better right at the end of the year and if he can maintain that in 2025, we could be talking about a fast half-inning guy. Mangus signed for just over $200,000 from Navarro JC in Texas instead of heading to Oklahoma. He’s a well-built steed with a long arm swing, faster ball spin (but below-average speed), and a potentially good slider. Avitia is a short three-quarters right-hander out of Grand Canyon to whom the Cubs gave $150,000 in the 12th round. Work with a fastball/changeup combination. His warmup is in the low 90s with running action, while his changeup in the low 80s, for which he displays advanced overall feel, has significant fade and depth.

Young, high-variance bats
Robin Ortiz, OF
Jose Escobar, 2B
Angelo Cepeda, SS
Ludwig Espinoza, SS

Ortiz is a hugely framed 18-year-old outfield prospect at 6-foot-4. He already has above-average raw power and didn’t land a concerning amount in his pro debut. Escobar is the next Pedro Ramirez type or maybe Yonathan Perlaza. He is a compact second base grinder who is advanced for his age and has a potential 50/40 hit/power combination. Cepeda is the craftiest of this group, a 6-foot-1 Dominican SS/3B who hit .298/.383/.428 overall. He has looming strikeout issues that keep him out of the main section of the roster. Espinoza was a $1 million signee who has yet to post an average DSL line in two seasons there.

System overview

The Cubs made some high-profile moves midway through the offseason, but their farm system hasn’t changed much. The Kyle Tucker trade cost them 2024 first-round pick Cam Smith, who would have ranked fourth on this list and whose scouting report you can find here. As the system currently stands, it is slightly below average in both depth and top-end impact. Their drop from our 2024 season rating comes primarily from rounding down Moises Ballesteros and Owen Caissie, who were both Top 100 candidates in the recent past and who now both look like more of good role players than core guys to be around build.

The core of this system, and the place where potential foundational pieces lie, is in all those young shortstops scattered across the bottom third of the roster. The early returns on these $3-4 million international amateur shortstops aren’t great, but their defensive ability and bat speed give them the potential to make a late leap. The same goes for Ty Southisense, Ronny Cruz and a more mature Derniche Valdez. In each of these players’ individual cases you can understand why the Cubs gave them so much money, even though the three most expensive (Cristian Hernandez, Fernando Cruz and Valdez) are the ones who are struggling the most right now. Eriandys Ramon (big gap) and Yahil Melendez have the best chances of breaking into the overall Top 100 over the next two years.

There has been quite a bit of electronic ink devoted to the Cubs’ investments in technology and development infrastructure to try to better develop pitchers. There really isn’t much evidence of progress along those lines in their system right now. Injuries or regression are a big part of the narrative for all but a couple of pitchers on the entire roster. Birdsell, Noland and Neely (who isn’t homegrown) are basically ready, but everyone else needs to prove they can stay healthy, throw strikes or both.