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Baseball America reveals their Top 30 Cubs prospects

A list of the top 30 prospects in the Cubs system

By Josh Timmers
Paul Richan
Eugene Emeralds

Earlier this winter, we reported on Baseball America’s list of the Top 10 prospects in the Cubs system. Now BA has revealed their Top 30 Cubs prospects for the 2019 season.

The entire list and the scouting reports are behind a paywall, but I can reveal who made their list here. If you want the full lowdown on all these potential future Cubs, you’ll just have to shell out for a subscription.

Baseball America’s top 30 Cubs prospects are:

  1. Nico Hoerner, SS
  2. Miguel Amaya, C
  3. Brailyn Marquez, LHP
  4. Cole Roederer, OF
  5. Brennen Davis, OF
  6. Adbert Alzolay, RHP
  7. Paul Richan, RHP
  8. Cory Abbott, RHP
  9. Justin Steele, LHP
  10. Aramis Ademan, SS
  11. Richard Gallardo, RHP
  12. Luis Verdugo, SS
  13. Nelson Velazquez, OF
  14. Alex Lange, RHP
  15. Jose Albertos, RHP
  16. Edmond Americaan, OF
  17. Brenden Little, LHP
  18. Dillon Maples, RHP
  19. Zack Short, SS
  20. Riley Thompson, RHP
  21. Oscar De La Cruz, RHP
  22. Thomas Hatch, RHP
  23. Reivaj Garcia, 2B
  24. Jared Young, 1B
  25. D.J. Wilson, OF
  26. Jhonny Pereda, C
  27. Jimmy Herron, OF
  28. Trevor Clifton, RHP
  29. Keegan Thompson, RHP
  30. Erick Leal, RHP

A few thoughts:

—Baseball America generally puts the greatest emphasis on upside, so that’s why you’re seeing players that you may not be familiar with like Richard Gallardo, Edmond Americaan or Reivaj Garcia. (That’s “Javier” spelled backwards, in case you were wondering.) We all hope that you won’t be unfamiliar with these players in the years to come because despite their limited experience, they do have a lot of upside.

—You’ll notice that a lot of players after the top 10 are different than ones you may have seen on other lists. Part of this is because different evaluators value different things. In this case, a lot of it is because there isn’t a lot of differentiation among Cubs prospects after you get past the top ten and maybe even the top five. I’m not saying that someone ranked in the twenties on this list doesn’t have a chance to be a major leaguer. But there are probably 30 of 40 players in the Cubs minor league system of similar value and whether a player is ranked at #15 or #30 probably doesn’t make a whole ton of difference.

—BA is more tolerant of players who had terrible 2018 seasons, dropping them less than other evaluators do.

—16 pitchers (13 RHP, 3 LHP). 6 OF, 4 SS, 2 C, 1 2B, 1 1B

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