The Cubs are planning to advertise prime prospect Owen Caissie, as reported by Kiley McDaniel and Jesse Rogers of ESPN. The younger outfielder is already on the 40-man, and he’ll presumably take Miguel Amaya’s spot on the energetic roster. Amaya sprained his ankle tonight and would require an IL stint. As for Caissie, the Ontario native is predicted to make his MLB debut tomorrow in opposition to the Blue Jays.
The Padres chosen Caissie within the second spherical of the 2020 draft, and so they flipped him to the Cubs that winter as a part of the commerce package deal that introduced Yu Darvish to San Diego. He has since labored his approach up Chicago’s minor league system, turning into one of many staff’s most promising prospects. Baseball America ranked him twenty first within the group in 2021, eighth in 2022, thirteenth in 2023, fifth in 2024, and second in 2025. He has additionally ranked amongst BA’s total prime 100 prospects in every of the previous three years. Not each supply was fairly as excessive on Caissie getting into the 2025 marketing campaign; FanGraphs dropped him off their prime 100 record after rating him sixty fifth in 2024, whereas The Athletic’s Keith Regulation has by no means included Caissie amongst his prime 100 prospects. But, none ever doubted Caissie’s large uncooked energy – the query was whether or not he may translate that energy into success on the highest degree.
That query loomed bigger than ever after Caissie slashed .278/.375/.472 with a .195 remoted energy and a 115 wRC+ in his season at Triple-A in 2024. These are strong however hardly earth-shattering numbers, particularly not for a bat-first nook outfielder. Nevertheless, the lefty slugger has taken a large step ahead this yr, with 22 dwelling runs and 50 extra-base hits in 92 video games for the Iowa Cubs. His .281 ISO and 145 wRC+ each rank fifth amongst certified hitters within the Worldwide League. His strikeout charge remains to be excessive – that has all the time and possibly will all the time be a problem – however a 28.0% Okay-rate definitely isn’t deadly, at the very least not if he retains drawing his walks and crushing dwelling runs.
None of that is to say that Caissie is a sure-thing, middle-of-the-order jolt for the Cubs’ lineup. He’s nonetheless only a 23-year-old prospect who has to show his swing-and-miss points gained’t sink him in opposition to MLB pitching and, specifically, left-handed MLB pitching. Nonetheless, it’s thrilling that he’s becoming a member of the staff for the stretch run as they appear to carry on to the NL’s prime Wild Card spot and attempt to problem the seemingly unstoppable Brewers for the NL Central crown. Any offensive increase he can present will probably be a lot appreciated. The Cubs rank among the many league’s finest offensive groups on the season, however they’ve struggled as of late, scoring simply 34 runs in 11 video games because the commerce deadline.
With that stated, it’s price questioning the place Caissie would match into Chicago’s lineup. He can play the nook outfield or DH, and the Cubs are set at these positions with Kyle Tucker, Ian Happ, and Seiya Suzuki. Tucker bats lefty like Caissie, whereas Happ is a switch-hitter with stronger splits in opposition to righty pitching. Suzuki bats right-handed, however he doesn’t have any bother dealing with same-handed pitching. In the end, because the cliché goes, that is the very best sort of downside for supervisor Craig Counsell to have. He can make the most of Caissie’s presence on the roster to provide his veterans a bit extra relaxation, notably the slumping Tucker. So long as Caissie hits, it’ll work out fairly properly. Alternatively, this implies there’s fairly a little bit of stress on the teenager to carry out straight away. The Cubs are as aggressive as they’ve been in a number of years, and so they can’t afford to remove reps from Tucker, Suzuki, and Happ if Caissie isn’t producing.
The roster match isn’t good, however the Cubs solely had 4 wholesome minor leaguers on the 40-man roster to select from, and it’s onerous to argue that Caissie didn’t earn this chance over fellow prime prospects Kevin Alcántara and Moisés Ballesteros, or the less-heralded Ben Cowles.
Picture in put up courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, USA TODAY Sports activities.
