Chicago Cubs: Checking in on the Cubs top 5 hitting prospects

The Chicago Cubs called up all of their top hitting prospects since Tom Ricketts purchased the Cubs. Now it’s time for the next wave of hitting prospects to progress through the farm system.

The Chicago Cubs have former prospects all over their current team. The front office went heavy on hitting prospects when Theo Epstein first entered the role of President of Baseball Operations back in October 2011. The previous regime had drafted Javier Baez in the 2011 MLB Draft, but Epstein selected Albert Almora in 2012, Kris Bryant in 2013, Kyle Schwarber in 2014, and Ian Happ in 2015.

These guys, with exception to Happ who was called up in 2017, played a key role in bringing a World Series Championship to the Cubs for the first time since 1908. The Cubs front office relied heavily on starting pitcher to come from outside resources by signing Jon Lester and Yu Darvish while making trades for Jake Arrieta, Kyle Hendricks, and Jose Quintana. They have done a nice job in recent years re-stocking their farm system on pitching prospects.

That being said, the team is currently within their seven-year window to compete for World Series championships. The Cubs likely won’t be able to re-sign all their key free agents when they are eligible for a contract extension which figures to generally all be around 2022, so the team will be relying on their farm system to help keep the team competitive.

So who are these hitting prospects that we should be keeping tabs on and what are they up to? Let’s dive in.