South Bend Cubs Gameday Program - April 2024

A Momentous Next Year is on the Way in South Bend!

The busiest time of year for those of us that are charged with the duty of fixing, improving, cleaning and planning for the upgrade of Four Winds Field, is the off season. And what an off season it has been! Since purchasing the team on November 11, 2011 at 11:11am and later becoming a Chicago Cubs affiliate at the end of 2014, every single year we have worked hard to make certain that the next season is the absolute best! It is our mantra, we are “Often Pleased, Never Satisfied!”

No doubt, you will see improvements this year in service, food selections, and the overall experience. You, our fans, deserve it. After all, last year we were named the BEST Class-A ballpark in the United States by the leading baseball periodical, “Baseball America” magazine. But what you also deserve is the best ballpark in all of the Minor Leagues!

As such, starting immediately after the last game of this season in September, we begin construction to further improve our beloved ballpark into something truly extraordinary. We will be sharing with you many of the details, renderings, and pictures of what we will be adding and replacing in the future. The focus will be in several new areas. Notably, we will be focusing not just on adding more seats and accommodating more fans, but we will be adding new experiences, better and faster kitchens, entertainment options, and more comfort, so that folks may come earlier and stay later in the happiest corner of South Bend!

Lastly, I can’t finish my letter to you without bragging about the greatest asset that makes the South Bend Cubs experience so special. You guessed it. The people! Our teammates off the field are across the board, friendly, kind, smart, funny, and truly caring. These are the kind of people you would want as friends, creating a wonderful experience for you. We celebrate these folks every day. I can’t wait for you to experience them and the ballpark this coming Spring and Summer!

See you soon and Go Cubs!!!

Warmly,

Andrew Berlin Chairman and Owner South Bend Cubs

Andrew Berlin with his wife Courtney (center, right), and sons Cole (left) and Gavin (right) taken prior to the 2023 MLB London Series.

Cream of the Crop

By: Max Thoma

The Cubs farm system is absolutely loaded with talent entering the 2024 baseball season. In 2015 the Chicago Cubs garnered the number one ranking on MLB.com and we all know what happened in the year that followed. This marks their highest ranking since.

Prior to the start of the 2022 campaign, Chicago’s farm system clocked it at No. 18. That year the South Bend Cubs won the Midwest League Championship for the second time in three seasons. Guys like Pete CrowArmstrong and Owen Caissie, two prolific young outfielders, powered South Bend to the crown. That same summer the Chicago Cubs drafted a pitcher by the name of Cade Horton in the first round after Horton shined with the Oklahoma Sooners in the College World Series.

In the rankings that came out prior to the 2023 season, Chicago’s pool of prospects had climbed up to the No. 12 spot. Horton dominated the short while he spent in High-A and the 2023 South Bend Cubs were led throughout the season by the likes of Kevin Alcántara, a freakishly long and powerful outfielder, and James Triantos, a versatile infielder with crazy bat-to-ball skills and surprise pop for his size.

Last summer the Cubs spent their firstround pick on a shortstop from Maryland named Matt Shaw. The 21-year-old infielder, selected 13th overall, came out of the gates scorching hot, skipping from Arizona to High-A after just three games and earning

a promotion to AA-Tennessee after just 20 games with South Bend.

Fast forward to today. Entering the 2024 season the Chicago Cubs have the second rated farm system in baseball and ALL SIX of the players mentioned above are top-100 prospects in ALL OF BASEBALL.

Pete Crow-Armstrong remains the Cubs No. 1 prospect entering 2024.

Credit: Kayleigh Sedlacek.

Oh and the Cubs actually traded for Michael Busch in the offseason, another top-100 prospect. That makes seven, the most of any major league franchise.

No. 16 Pete Crow-Armstrong

The Cubs No. 1 prospect began last year in AA-Tennessee and in 73 games showcased his abilities across the board. The 80-grade defender in centerfield slugged .527 with a .898 OPS and 14 HR, while stealing 27 bases.

A trip to join the Iowa Cubs followed and the 21-year-old didn’t slow down, tallying six homers in 34 games while slugging .479 with an .829 OPS.

Then he got the call every minor leaguer dreams of; PCA joined the Chicago Cubs for a series at Coors Field in the middle of September to make his MLB debut. Despite a few highlight reel catches that robbed extra bases away from Rockies hitters, CrowArmstrong struggled at the plate in that first series and went 0-for-14 in his few weeks with the club to end the year.

That has fueled some offeseason talk about whether or not he can handle big-league pitching.

14 at-bats. How can anyone be judged off of 14 at-bats?

Across 214 games in the minors (885

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at-bats), he batted .301 with an .892 OPS. The top-20 prospect in baseball slugged 36 homers over that time, showcasing far more power than experts projected after he missed almost the entire 2021 season due to injury.

Crow-Armstrong comes off the field after the final out of the inning.

Credit: John Mersits.

Fans were hoping to see that Pete CrowArmstrong, dreaming of seeing in 14 at-bats what PCA is in microcosm. But that’s unrealistic. No doubt Pete wanted to begin the year with the big-league club but starting in Iowa will take the pressure off and when he comes back up I’d expect him to be eager to prove the doubters wrong. He's got gold glover written all over him, and if he displays the offensive abilities we've seen in the minors, All-Star Game nods could follow suit.

No. 26 Cade Horton

The Cubs last three first rounders flew through the lower levels of the farm system and Horton was no exception. The hardthrowing right-hander shot up draft boards in the late spring of 2022 when he developed a slider and stymied everyone he faced in the postseason while helping Oklahoma make a run to the finals of the College World Series. 2022 was the first season back from Tommy John surgery for the seventh overall pick, so after a lengthy spring season, accumulating 53.2 innings, Horton didn’t make an appearance with a Cubs affiliate in 2022 and instead broke camp with Myrtle Beach in 2023.

After four starts, 21 strikeouts in 14.1 IP, and two earned runs, Horton earned his first promotion. It didn’t take him long to find great success in South Bend either. In his

home debut vs Dayton the then 21-year-old struck out eight in four innings. A week later he K’d nine in four innings, allowing no earned runs at Fort Wayne. Coming back to Four Winds Field he faced Lansing and in a tour de force type effort punched out 10 in five shutout innings, without a walk.

A month and a half later after a perfect four innings at Dozer Park vs Peoria, Horton ventured up another level to Double-A.

August brought with it even greater dominance. In his first month with the Tennessee Smokies, Horton dazzled with a 1.57 ERA across five starts. In the first round of the postseason the electric 6’1 kid from Oklahoma City tossed five shutout frames, fanning seven vs Chattanooga. Next up, the Southern League Championship.

Well, a month after turning 22 years old, the kid with a knack for pitching on the biggest stages, mowed through the Pensacola Blue Wahoos and allowed just one hit in five innings. The Smokies won the game 10-3 and swept the series.

Season one began in Low-A Myrtle Beach and ended in Double-A with not only a ring but as the Chicago Cubs 2023 Minor League Pitcher of the Year.

Credit: Ethan Levy.

Now he’ll try to join Jordan Wicks and go from first round pick to the MLB within two years.

No. 47 Owen Caissie

Caissie, like PCA, was a member of the 2022 Midwest League Champion South Bend Cubs, and that summer his walk-off grand slam with two outs in the ninth inning vs Wisconsin still stands as one of the most electric moments in ballpark history.

The 21-year-old outfielder doesn’t cele-

Cade Horton making his Four Winds Field debut in 2023.

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brate his next birthday until July and is playing well beyond his years. As only a 20-year-old last season he finished top five in the Southern League in homers (22), batting average (.289), on-base percentage (.398), and slugging (.519), while leading another team to a postseason crown.

Caissie packs incredible power, producing some of the best exit velocities of any player in the minors, and a terrific eye, he finished third in the Cubs system with 76 walks last year.

Among Cubs minor leaguers at full season affilates in 2023, Caissie finished with the highest wRC+ (144) and wOBA (.427), making him arguably the most valuable player on the Cubs farm a year ago. He’s been a key cog on two championship teams and is healthy and available seemingly every day. With his pop at the plate and his discipline, OC could absolutely make his MLB debut in 2024, even amongst a congested group of elite outfielders.

No. 54 Matt Shaw

A lot of the time a top prospect shoots through the lower levels of the minors after being a high-end draft pick and fans assume that’s the norm. Well the Cubs 1st round pick from 2023 blistered through the minors, rising even faster last year than Cade Horton

did. But not every prospect drafted that high follows such a clear and concise path through the system.

After the Maryland Terrapin’s shortstop was selected 13th overall last July, he went out to the Cubs Complex in Arizona and joined the rookie league affiliate there on July 27. After going 4-for-8 with a HR, 2 BB, and 2 SB, the 21-year-old hopped Low-A Myrtle Beach and traveled instead to Downtown South Bend, Ind. After joining Lance Rymel’s squad on August 1, it took the young phenom exactly four weeks before he made another trip up the system, this time to Tennessee and the eventual AA Southern League Champion Smokies.

Credit: Ethan Levy.

While with the Cubs, Shaw hit .393 with a 1.082 OPS in 20 games, including four homers, three triples, 18 RBIs, and seven stolen bases. In AA the success wasn’t nearly as jaw dropping but only because the South Bend sample was off the charts. With the Smokies, the toolsy infielder batted .292 with a .523 slugging and three homers in 15 games.

But Shaw’s ability in what amounted to less than two months to fly through the system and rake off pitching at every level he touched isn’t necessarily the norm for someone selected with such a high pick.

Shaw gets congratulated in the dugout after scoring a run.

Caissie after hitting a home run in final game of 2022 MWL Championship.

Credit: Casey McDonald.

SOUTH BEND

Take Jacob Gonzalez for example. The Ole Miss shortstop from their national championship team got drafted two picks after Shaw. Same position and same age. Gonzalez debuted three days prior on July 24 and similar to Shaw moved up after only a few days. But instead of skipping to High-A, the 21-year-old joined the White Sox Low-A affiliate in Kannapolis. There he struggled, hitting .207 with a .589 OPS in 30 games. That’s where his season ended.

Hopefully that helps put into perspective how absurd Shaw was a year ago.

No. 63 Kevin Alcántara

The third and final player on this list acquired in a trade is Kevin Alcántara. While PCA came over in the Javier Baez deal and Caissie in the Yu Darvish haul, Alcántara was acquired along with Alexander Vizcaino for Cubs legend Anthony Rizzo.

Last year Alcántara finished third in the Midwest League in batting average (.286) and fourth in slugging (.466). He spent the first half of the season as a 20-year-old.

OPS of 1.171 truly encapsulated how well the young top prospect played the final month of the season.

With incredible size, power, speed, and range, the 6-foot-6 outfielder showed tremendous growth throughout last season and a hugely important 2024 now lies ahead.

No. 73 James Triantos

Similar to Alcántara, Triantos was able to finish the South Bend Cubs regular season on September 10, and then head down to Kodak, Tenn. and cap the regular season with the Smokies, proving to be a shot in the arm for a championship push.

Triantos rode an up-and-down 2023 season that started late due to a torn meniscus during the spring. The 21-year-old second baseman, who saw time at third base and even center field last year, finished incredibly similar to what we saw from Alcántara.

He finished his time with South Bend with a four-hit game including a homer in the season finale vs Quad Cities, and on top of that he reached base in his final 16 games, with an OPS of 1.161 and a batting average of .417 over that time. He even managed the longest on-base streak for a South Bend Cub last season at 23 games.

Cubs No. 6 prospect Kevin Alcántara and No. 7 prospect James Triantos smile for the camera on July 4th last year, in front of a crowd of 8,053. Credit: Ethan Levy.

The athletic and versatile infielder batted .318 over the final month of the season, helped the Smokies win a title, and then smashed pitching in the Arizona Fall League.

Matt Mervis ripped through the Arizona Fall League, and Nelson Velazquez did the same offensively in the previous falls.

Well Triantos hit .417 with a .679 slugging on his way to being named the AFL Offensive Player of the Year.

He finished the season up in Tennessee for the final week of the regular season and then the Southern League Playoffs. He won a ring with the Smokies and contributed greatly in four postseason tilts. Alcántara hit .400 with one homer and four RBIs. His playoff

His bat-to-bat skills are scary good and his eye at the dish is advanced, leading to very few swings and misses. In fact among Cubs minor leaguers a season ago, Traintos finished with a 10.7% strikeout rate; Darius Hill finished second at 15.1%.

The kid can't miss.

THE FAMILY BUSINESS

New South Bend Manager Nick Lovullo Set to Continue Baseball Managerial Lineage

By: Brendan King

When new South Bend Cubs manager Nick Lovullo says that he was born into the game of baseball, he’s not cutting any corners. From his first day on Earth, baseball is what his future featured. Not by just a love for the game, but a career set by destiny.

Growing up, the 30-year-old Lovullo got baseball stadium access that any other kid could only dream about. That’s thanks to his dad; Former Major League player and now manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Torey Lovullo.

As a kid, Nick would get to run around MLB cities like Seattle, Cleveland, Oakland, Philadelphia, and all kinds of other stops along the way. Torey, a veteran of 303 Big League games, played in ‘The Show’ until Nick was about five or six. These experiences ignited a love for the game that would eventually take him to just like his dad, also becoming a manager.

Just when Torey was wrapping up his playing career, which also featured a stop all the way over in Japan in 2000, he was presented with a crossroads that his son would also experience some 20 years later. Torey decided to pursue the coaching realm. Starting first in Cleveland as a Minor League coach.

“I kind of saw my dad in the player role when I was very young and got to spend time

in Major and Minor League clubhouses at a very young age,” Nick Lovullo said. “Not a lot of kids get to do that and get a behind the scenes look of how the game operates, the clubhouse culture and interactions between players, coaches, managers, and front offices. That was really unique and I still draw on those experiences even to this day.”

The meat and potatoes of this family story stretches from coast to coast across the country, and with all sorts of lessons learned along the way.

“I grew up always wanting to be around the game,” Nick said. “Being fortunate enough to play in high school, college, and also professionally, I knew when my time as a player was done I wanted to stay in the game and pursue coaching. It all goes back to how it stated with my dad.”

Lovullo on the backfields during Spring Training at the Cubs facility in Mesa, Ariz.

Credit: Rich Biesterfeld.

A key figure to the entirety of this tale is former Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox manager John Farrell. In 1993, when Nick was just about to enter the world, Torey was a teammate of Farrell’s with the California Angels. They formed a friendship that eventually led to time spent together coaching in the Big Leagues.

Torey Lovullo was named the bench coach for the Blue Jays when Farrell was the manager north of the border, and eventually the same held true when Farrell became the Red Sox manager.

so much more than HEALTH INSURANCE

... continued from previous page. This working relationship took Nick to playing college baseball in Worcester, Massachusetts at Holy Cross. With the Crusaders, he was a teammate of former South Bend Cubs pitcher Brendan King. The Holy Cross program also reached new heights while being led by their talented infielder.

Lovullo’s best college season came in 2015, where he hit .278 in 50 games, and finished that year with more walks (31) than strikeouts (29). The excellent Patriot League numbers earned him an opportunity to play with the Falmouth Commodores of the Cape Cod Baseball League that same summer.

Credit: Rich Biesterfeld.

The jump to going to play college baseball in New England panned out perfectly, as he was then selected by the Boston Red Sox in the 20th round of the 2016 MLB Draft. With his dad as the bench coach at Fenway Park, Lovullo was set to join the same organization.

With the Red Sox, Nick played in the organization’s minor league system from 2016 through 2019. In the middle of that tenure, Torey Lovullo was hired as the manager of the Diamondbacks in 2017, where he was voted National League Manager of the Year in his first season.

After his departure from the Red Sox, Nick played parts of 2021 in independent baseball, as well as a stint in the Miami Marlins organization. At 27-years-old, a decision was on the horizon. Continue to play, or look for another role in the game he loves? The same choice his dad was presented with some two decades earlier.

Lovullo chose to pursue what he felt was best, and get into the coaching realm. Something he thought he could strive in thanks to his extensive experience as a player and knowledge of what it takes to win.

“It’s awesome that I was able to go through six or seven years as a player because I walked in the player’s shoes and dealt with their daily struggles and challenges,” Lovullo said. “However I can help, I want them to know that I’m here for them, I’ve been in their situations, and I can relate to their experiences. To be able to relate to them that way goes a long way in helping them achieve their goals and what they are looking for.”

When the Chicago Cubs organization presented itself as a destination, Lovullo was all over the possibility of helping in any fashion. He first joined the Tennessee Smokies as an assistant coach in 2022, before becoming the manager for the Arizona Complex League

South Bend's new Manager signs a baseball for a young fan outside of Sloan Park.

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Cubs in 2023. Now in 2024, he embarks on his first campaign as a full-season affiliate manager with the Cubs in South Bend.

Meghan Montemurro from the Chicago Tribune wrote a story about Lovullo last year before the Arizona Complex League season, and talked with former South Bend Cub Chase Strumpf about having Lovullo as an assistant in Tennessee.

“I remember walking into my first day of pro ball and you don’t know anything, you don’t know anyone and you’re trying to figure it out as you go,” Strumpf told the Chicago Tribune. “And to have a guy like Lovullo that can just tell them, ‘Hey, this is what it’s like when you first get here, be prepared to get a little overwhelmed, but I can help you out and give you tips to get more comfortable,’ he’s going to be great for that aspect.”

Lovullo chats with the home plate umpire during a minor league Spring Training game.

Credit: Rich Biesterfeld.

As for the thrill to call South Bend home in 2024, Lovullo got a taste of what the season

would be like in March, when he went out to dinner with South Bend Cubs Owner and Chairman Andrew Berlin, President Joe Hart, and the new coaching staff. He also caught up with Chris Hagstrom and I at the backfields of the Cubs Complex, and it was clear that he was not only ready for a challenge like leading a team in the Midwest League, he was giddy for it.

“Excited is the perfect word to describe what I have been feeling,” Lovullo said. “I’m just really honored and humbled that the Cubs trusted me to put me in this position. It will be a challenge, but I’m ready for it.”

The coaching staff is also a unique part of Lovullo’s assignment to the 574. New South Bend Cubs hitting coach Nate Spears not only played for the Boston Red Sox organization too, but he coached in it. Spears was Lovullo’s bench coach with the Greenville Drive in 2016. Now, nearly a decade later, they are set to team up at Four Winds Field.

At his disposal for the entirety of Spring Training as well were two former South Bend managers in Buddy Bailey and Lance Rymel. Bailey begins another year at Low-A Myrtle Beach as MiLB’s active winningest manager. And Rymel is set to begin his first year as the skipper for the Double-A Tennessee Smokies, following a successful two year run in Downtown South Bend. Both Bailey and Rymel have a Midwest League championship ring, and Lovullo now looks to add his own banner.

“I’m very honored to be in the conversation with those names,” Lovullo said. “It’s not something I take lightly, and I spend time with

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those guys everyday. Every morning we talked, and I’ve asked Lance probably a million questions about his course in South Bend. They have so much experience and insight and I’m trying to absorb that as much as I can.”

Of course, becoming a full-season manager, you hit a lot of fungo practice ground balls during practice. Lovullo joked that he had a 45 percent ground ball rate as a player, so his fungo game is coming along well. Buddy Bailey is the master of those, so Lovullo’s got a good sensei if he ever needs some tips.

More than anything though, this opportunity for the newest South Bend skipper gives him a shot to make his own name in the managerial world. Just like his dad did. The Lovullo family bleeds baseball. And if there’s one thing that both Torey and Nick know how to do, it’s to get the best out of their players.

Last year, the Diamondbacks went to the World Series on a magical run that included knocking off the Los Angeles Dodgers in the postseason. It was no fluke. Torey talked about the exact situations the Diamondbacks experienced with Nick prior to the bright lights turning on.

“If you asked anybody at the beginning of last season, nobody saw that year transpiring for the Diamondbacks like it did,” Nick said. “That’s nobody outside of the Diamondbacks clubhouse. From day one, he was like ‘we’re going to the World Series’. And I was like okay, when? Down the road? And he said ‘No, this year’. I kind of laughed but he said he was serious. That’s the kind of confidence that I admired about him in that situation. Sure enough they did it.”

As the Diamondbacks came up just short of their ultimate goal, falling to the Houston Astros in the Fall Classic, Nick took away a major lesson while watching his dad lead Arizona. And it certainly applies to leading a group of men this season in South Bend.

“Not a lot of people believed in them but it doesn’t matter what’s happening outside of

the clubhouse,” Nick said. “All that matters is what’s going on inside those four walls. The culture and atmosphere that he creates, he talks a lot about togetherness, being a family, good teammate, and good friend. Those are all important to me too. I’m going to try to keep those things established in South Bend.”

In that same Chicago Tribune articled that quoted Strumpf, Montemurro got in touch with Torey Lovullo. The two talked about Nick getting his first managerial opportunity with the Cubs, and this is what he said.

“He has found his own way inside of this game, and he did that on his own,” Torey told the Chicago Tribune. “He didn’t work for the Arizona Diamondbacks and get promoted through the system. He earned everything that he could possibly earn and I’m proud of him for that. This is his path, this is his journey, and I’m enjoying the ride with him.”

The same kid that was once getting autographs, running the bases, ordering hot dogs, and digesting the game at all kinds of Major and Minor League parks now gets the chance to lead a full-season squad for the first time.

Every great story has a beginning somewhere new. This is just the start for Nick Lovullo, as he calls South Bend home for 2024.

Lovullo bracing cool temps in early February. Credit: Rich Biesterfeld.

PITCHERS

INFIELDERS OUTFIELDERS

CATCHERS

2023 SOUTH BEND CUBS COACHING STAFF

Nick Lovullo - Manager

Nick Lovullo’s time with the Cubs organization began as a coach two years ago. A former Boston Red Sox prospect, the 30-year-old was drafted in the 20th round of the 2016 MLB Draft by Boston, after a collegiate career at Holy Cross. He grew up and played his high school baseball in Thousand Oaks, California. In his first pro season, Lovullo was promoted as high as Double-A Portland. His professional career concluded in 2021, in a stop with the Miami Marlins organization, as well as independent baseball. The son of Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo, Nick became the Double-A Tennessee Smokies bench coach in 2022 and managed the Arizona Complex League Cubs in 2023.

Bruce Billings - Pitching Coach

Bruce Billings joins South Bend following a successful year with Low-A Myrtle Beach as their pitching coach. Under Billings the Pelicans pitching staff posted the lowest opposing batting average in the Carolina League in 2023, as well as the second most strikeouts. The former big leaguer was selected by the Colorado Rockies in the 2007 MLB Draft. He was San Diego State’s all-time strikeout leader before Stephen Strasburg broke his record. Billings made his MLB debut with the Rockies in 2011 and pitched with the Oakland A's and New York Yankees. The right-hander also pitched overseas in Taiwan and China. Prior to joining the Cubs he coached within the Philadelphia Phillies organization.

Nate Spears - Hitting Coach

Nate Spears begins his first season with the South Bend Cubs as the team’s new hitting coach. Spears began his playing career with the Baltimore Orioles, after they selected him in the fifth-round of the 2003 MLB Draft. The Fort Myers, Fla. native was traded by the Orioles to the Northsiders in the Corey Patterson deal in 2006. Spears played for former South Bend manager Buddy Bailey in 2008 with Double-A Tennessee, and made it to Triple-A Iowa. His career then took him to the Boston Red Sox, where he made his MLB debut. Spears played for Boston in 2011 and 2012. As a coach, he stayed with the Red Sox, and wound-up coaching Nick Lovullo when the new South Bend skipper was a Red Sox prospect.

Kyle Moore Bench Coach

Nick Roberts Athletic Trainer

Kelcey Mosley Strength and Conditioning Coach

Collin Andrews Dev Coach (hitting)

Andrew Rueter Dev Coach (pitching)

Players to Watch in 2024

Chicago Cubs non top-100 prospects who could shine in 2024

By Max Thoma

With the Cubs system as good as its been since 2015, when it was rated No. 1, we thought why not highlight some more studs who aren't among the seven Cubs in the top-100 of all of baseball.

Moises Ballesteros

The 20-year-old catcher, who won’t turn 21 until two months after the 2024 season ends, burst onto the scene last year with some of the best bat-to-ball skills in the Midwest League and in the Cubs farm system. After signing for $1.2 million, the young catcher began his pro career in 2021 in the Dominican Summer League. His numbers didn’t jump off the charts there in 48 games; he hit .266 with three homers, 25 RBI, and a .786 OPS. But what did stand out was 31 walks to just 24 strikeouts, leading to a .396 on-base percentage for a then 17 year old. 2022 brought with it a stateside debut for the short, powerful prospect from Venezuela. He split up his season nearly exactly 50/50 between the Cubs rookie ball squad in Arizona (32 games) and Low-A Myrtle Beach (31 games).

Reaching Low-A as an 18-year-old is quite the feat by itself, but what impressed most again was the developed discipline of such a young hitter.

He drew 18 walks with the Pelicans and registered an on-base percentage of .349 in

his month plus with the birds.

As impressive as his first two years had been, the sample size wasn’t large at all and elevated walk numbers alone didn’t have him standing out when experts wrote about top prospects in such a loaded and deep farm system.

Cue-up 2023.

Last season Ballesteros came out with avengeance and à la Cade Horton went from Low-A, to High-A, to Double-A and finished his season with the icing on the cake that took the form of a Southern League Championship. After the season concluded, at 19 years old, Ballesteros was named the Cubs Minor League Player of the Year; there’s the cherry on top of that icing.

In 56 games with Myrtle Beach he reached base at a .394 clip and tallied an .851 OPS with 40 walks compared to just 30 strikeouts. Up a level he went.

Another sample of 56 games followed, this time with the South Bend Cubs. In this flash he hit .300 and slugged .463. The strikeout numbers inflated a bit and his walks decreased but over the course of the second half of the season there was no teenager more valuable in the Midwest League than Moises Ballesteros.

With South Bend not making the playoffs, he got to join the group of Alcántara, Triantos, and others who finished the year with one week of Double-A action and then the post-

Ballesteros walks back to the dugout following a pitching change. Credit: Ethan Levy.

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season.

His future could be at first base or catcher, but either way his smooth stroke from the left side paired with his plate discipline will continue to play at every level.

Jefferson Rojas

Rojas is not a player we’ve seen so far at Four Winds Field but that will change after the home opener on April 9.

The shortstop who signed for $1 million a couple years ago is still only 18 years old and last season was only one of three everyday players that young in the Carolina League.

The teenager from the Dominican Republic, began his pro debut by hitting .303 over the course of 45 games in the Dominican Summer League in 2022. That year he stole nearly as many bases (15) as he had strikeouts (18).

Last year it became time for a stateside debut and after a shot of espresso in the Arizona Complex League (literally one game) it was off to brighter pastures on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean.

Rojas played 71 games with the Myrtle Beach Pelicans in 2023 and finished with a quite respectable slashline given his age: he

hit .265, with a .342 on-base percentage, and a .400 slugging. Pelicans Ballpark is notoriously tough on hitters, so taking that into account alongside the facts of being an 18-year-old who's in the United States for the first time, truly it was an impressive run of form.

Given that I haven’t had the priveledge of seeing Rojas in person I’ll leave it to MLB Pipeline to describe his talent: “Rojas has a controlled right-handed swing and precocious pitch-recognition skills that enable him to make contact with ease. He has more bat speed than most teenagers and already shows some aptitude for pulling and launching balls,

Rojas doubles during Spring Training 2024. Credit: The Chicago Sun Times.

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so he should develop average or better power once he matures physically. Besides adding strength, his biggest need is to be more selective about which pitches he puts in play.”

When you’re that young you’re far from a finished product. So we’ll be seeing the rawness of an 18 year old but also a kid who’s got an advanced game and hopefully will start to tap into that power more. It’s always tough for guys who grew up in hot climates to come to South Bend for the first time, especially if they’re on the opening day roster and playing games at Four Winds Field in April. So expectations should always be kept in check in the first month of the season. I mean Kevin Alcántara really struggled early last year and finished as one of the top hitters in the league.

But what we have here is a young stud playing so well that he took a stranglehold on shortstop from Christian Hernandez (who signed for $3 million), and moved the highly touted signee over to second base a season ago.

Michael Arias

Arias might be the most interesting case study in 2024.

That stems from the fact that the righthanded pitcher was originally drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays as a shortstop back in 2018. The Jays released the athletic youngster from Santo Domingo and the Cubs singed him in 2021 with the intention of putting him on the mound.

In 2022 he became a starting pitcher and in a small sample with the Arizona Complex

Cubs was a little all over the place with his results. In 13 innings his ERA was nearly five and he walked 18 batters. But he also struck out 18 batters and allowed an opposing batting average of a measly .199.

Michael Arias walks off the field after an inning-ending strikeout.

Credit: Ethan Levy.

But in 2021 and 2022 combined the electric shortstop turned pitcher logged just over 40 innings. 2023 would be a different script however and fans and coaches got to see what Arias was like over a full season slate of pitching in a starting role.

In 11 starts with the Pelicans the dude shoved to the tune of a 2.55 ERA and in 42.1 innings he K’d an astounding 64 batters. The numbers were eye-popping and the raw stuff simply captivating.

Batters in the Carolina League managed just a .164 average off a kid who had barely pitched before professionally.

In fact, in his final seven starts with the Pelicans his ERA dwindled all the way down to 0.88 and he averaged over 1.5 punch outs

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per inning.

On May 31 he tossed five no-hit innings and earned Carolina League Pitcher of the Week honors. That proved to be a harbinger of what was to come in South Bend.

On June 28 Arias moved up to South Bend and two days later he made his club debut at Beloit. That day was a snapshot of what Arias would prove to be with South Bend. He flashed an incredible two-seamer with crazy arm side run in the high 90s but he still allowed four runs in 4.1 innings, despite fanning seven hitters.

His next outing differed greatly as he only went three innings, allowing no runs and no hits. He plunked a batter that night vs the Peoria Chiefs and walked four more. He escaped scott-free after the bases were loaded, however the pitch count ballooned quickly.

That night the Cubs tossed their first no-hitter since 2021.

Arias’s ERA with South Bend in July was 5.02 and in August it blossomed further to 7.71. He finished the season strong though with two September starts in which he allowed a combined two hits and one run in 6.1 innings.

Jarod Wright, Arias, Ballesteros, Eduarniel Nunez, and Frankie Scalzo atfer the Cub's no-no.

Credit: Ethan Levy.

A year ago Arias went from an unkown entity to the Cubs No. 12 prospect.

Now what can he do for an encore?

Drew Gray:

Next up is the lone lefty pitcher in the Chicago Cubs top-30 list that isn’t with the big league club. Gray was actually the top prospect in Illinois at Belleville East High school before he transferred to IMG Academy for his senior year.

The 6-foot-3 southpaw went to Chicago in the third round of the 2021 MLB Draft, 72 picks after the Cubs took LHP Jordan Wicks. Wicks broke through to the majors last year and begins 2024 in the Northsiders starting rotation.

But these two lefties had distinctly

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different backgrounds entering the draft and in their time since.

Wicks played for three years at Kansas State and was considered by many the most pro ready arm in the 2021 Draft. Gray meanwhile got selected out of high school and needed Tommy John surgery within a year of being drafted.

Gray pitching at the Perfect Game All-American Classic. Credit: Perfect Game.

After four innings with the ACL Cubs in 2021, Gray didn’t see the mound again in a game until 2023 when he made 14 starts. Chicago eased him back into form with three short starts in Arizona and then 11 starts with the Pelicans that amassed only 27.2 innings. In the Carolina League he recorded a 4.23 ERA but produced a crazy 45 strikeouts and an opposing batting average of .196.

The control wasn’t always there, leading to too many walks, but Gray was still just 20 years old and hadn’t pitched in some time. He ended the season on an incredible high after being named the Carolina League

Pitcher of the Month for September. In his final month he struck out 12 across two starts and allowed an opposing batting average of just .056.

Now he enters a new season with no strings attached. The surgery is long in the rearview mirror and the healthy third rounder with a mid-90s fastball that eats high in the zone and a pair of filthy breaking balls now embarks on a crucial season in his progression.

Gray enters his fourth year since being drafted having not yet made it past three innings in an outing and having only totaled 38 innings.

Let’s see what the highly praised kid from IMG Academy can do — he’s still only 20 afterall.

If I had more space I could continue to opine about how loaded the Cubs system is entering 2024.

Guys like Wicks, Ben Brown, and Luke Little are already helping the big league club on the mound. Alexander Canario and Matt Mervis are chomping at the bit to get back to the bigs. Brody McCullough and Brandon Birdsell shined bright last year and enter as top-30 guys in 2024. BJ Murray and Haydn McGeary busted out with their bats last year and it's certainly feasible for one of them, or both, to make their MLB debuts this season if they maintain their torrid pace.

I didn't even get a chance to discuss any of those guys until now... Having the No. 2 system in baseball will make for an encapsulating season on the farm.

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