I always like sharing Cubs prospect homers anyway, but three of the ones hit yesterday each sparked in me some thoughts about the prospects who hit them. So I’m sharing these three, with a little note on each player …
First, the newsiest one, as Kevin Alcántara hit a rocket opposite field homer …
… but then later left the game with an apparent injury. As is the case with all minor league injuries, I just assume we are highly unlikely to hear exactly what it is/was until long after the fact. You just have to hope that it was something minor, and the guy returns a few days later without comment.
Alcántara, 22, is hitting .277/.358/.436/109 wRC+ in his first 106 PAs at Triple-A, albeit with a 30.9% K rate and a .379 BABIP. Assuming there is no catastrophic injury here, you can expect that he’ll be back at Iowa to open 2025. That was always going to be the case, as there just wasn’t going to be an obvious spot for him on the big league roster just just yet, plus more development time is necessary. His plus glove in center field creates a much higher floor such that he doesn’t HAVE to be a monster on offense to be valuable, but I just happen to believe he does have some really significant upside on offense, and my guess is he’ll really explode at Triple-A next year. Assuming health, of course.
Next, from the same game, there was Brennen Davis hitting a particularly pr🧸odigious blast:
Davis, 24, offering a reminder of just how much power he still has, even after multiple back injuries and procedures and a mess of disrupted development the last three years. That’s a longggggg homer.
As discussed this weekend on Davis:
“Meanwhile, Brennen Davis has now been back at Iowa for about 10 days (returning from a back fracture in early-summer), and unfortunately the rust is showing: .143/.250/.171/18 wRC+ in that span. Like it is with Mervis, the Cubs are going to have a 40-man roster call to make on Davis after the season. Dream scenario was that he came back from the injury and continued to hit like he did to open this season (he’d finally bounced back!). Nightmare scenario was either that he didn’t come back, or he came back and couldn’t get back over the hump.”
Here’s hoping, then, that this blast gets him back on a hot streak to close out the season.
Speaking of closing out the season, the Myrtle Beach Pelicans ended their yesterday with an 8-0 win. Outfield prospect Anderson Suriel had a perfect day at th💝e plate, including this homer:
Suriel, you may recall, was one of the breakout prospects in the Arizona Complex League this year (he destroyed that level), who got the late bump to full season ball. There, he hit .245/.351/.367/118 wRC+ over 17 games, and set himself up to be on the prospect radar heading into 2025. Although he’s already 21, Suriel may have really turned a corner this year after a couple tries at rookie ball. You’d want to see him reach High-A relatively early next year to stay on a decent age/level development track, but he’s in the range.
That’s a pretty nice turn for a guy who, coming into the year, looked on paper to be a too-old-for-his-level, under-performing 1B/LF type who really needed to rake to justify his spot in the org. He has pretty clearly done that, and if he’s at South Bend by summer next year – when he would’ve just turned 22 – we’ll be paying even more attention.
