Chicago Cubs System Gets Bold Prediction For Next Season

The Chicago Cubs are filled with some of the best prospects in baseball.

Look at MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 and you’ll find the Cubs have six prospects listed, including their top prospect, outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong.

The rest of those Top 100 prospects included pitcher Cade Horton, outfielder Owen Caissie, outfielder Kevin Alcántara, pitcher Ben Brown and shortstop Matt Shaw.

Crow-Armstrong and Alcántara have already made their MLB debuts.

By the end of the 2024 season, one MLB Pipeline analyst, Jim Callis, believes the Cubs will have the best minor league system in the game. His take?

“I went with the Cubs because I think they have the potential for the most Top 100 prospects at the end of the year when guys have graduated. Pete Crow-Armstrong is going to graduate this year. I think Cade Horton is going to graduate. ... Right now, Owen Caissie, Kevin Alcántara, Ben Brown and Matt Shaw are all in the Top 100 list -- they all could qualify. … I think Jackson Ferris is going to be a Top 100 guy by the end of the year. I think James Triantos is going to be a Top 100 guy by the end of the year. They’ve got Jefferson Rojas, super young international signee who they kind of fast-forwarded to Single-A last year and he held his own."

In other words, the Cubs are stacked. One prospects Callis didn’t mention was pitcher Jordan Wicks, a left-hander who joined the Cubs last August and hasn’t accumulated enough experience to graduate from MLB Pipeline’s rankings. He’s considered the organization’s No. 10 prospect and has a shot at a rotation spot in 2024.

Crow-Armstrong could be the starter in center field on Opening Day, especially if the Cubs are unable to lure Cody Bellinger back to the team.

Horton reached Double-A Tennessee last season and is projected as a 2025 call-up, so if he were to graduate from MLB Pipeline’s rankings then it’s because he’s won an MLB job and stuck with the Cubs.

Caissie also reached Double-A Tennessee and projects as a 2024 call-up. Alcántara is already on the MLB roster, as is Brown.

Shaw was the Cubs’ first-round pick in 2023 but he’s already at Tennessee, as is the first Cubs prospect outside the MLB Top 100, catcher/first baseman Moises Ballesteros.

The Cubs are stacked and they could look even better by the end of the 2024 season.