Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Owen Caissie

Cubs Acquire Edward Cabrera

By | at

The Cubs and Marlins have completed one of the more notable trades of the offseason — a swap that’ll send righty Edward Cabrera from Miami to Chicago in exchange for top outfield prospect Owen Caissie and minor league infielders Cristian Hernandez and Edgardo De Leon.

Cabrera, 28 in April, is a former top prospect who has shown flashes of excellence in the past but wasn’t healthy enough to deliver on that potential until a breakout 2025 campaign. Though he still logged some IL time this past season, he turned in a career-high 137 2/3 innings with a strong 3.53 ERA and encouraging underlying numbers. Cabrera punched out 25.8% of opponents, logged a career-low 8.3% walk rate — far better than the 13.3% clip he carried into the season — recorded a 46.6% ground-ball rate and sat 97 mph on his four-seamer (and 96.8 mph on his sinker) in 2025.

Early in the 2025 season, Cabrera missed two weeks with blisters on his pitching hand — his second career IL trip due to blister troubles. His second IL trip in 2025 was more alarming, as it was prompted by an elbow sprain late in the year. That’s a far more worrying injury, but Cabrera returned after only three weeks and fired nine generally solid innings across his final two appearances, sitting 97.7 mph on his four-seamer and 97.9 mph on his sinker during that time. Given the trade interest in him this offseason and a deal now complete, it doesn’t appear there’s any current concern about a major elbow injury looming on the horizon.

Beyond his premium velocity and quality rate stats, Cabrera’s contractual situation always figured to hold broad-reaching appeal. He’s entering the second of four arbitration seasons as a Super Two player and is projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn a highly affordable $3.7MM in 2026. He’s under club control all the way through 2028, and based on the fairly low starting point in his arbitration journey, those three seasons aren’t likely to cost much more than $20MM overall.

Cabrera will slot into a deep Cubs rotation mix, joining Rookie of the Year finalist Cade Horton and veterans Matthew Boyd, Jameson Taillon and Shota Imanaga (who accepted a $22.05MM qualifying offer in November). Acquiring Cabrera likely pushes veteran swingman Colin Rea back into a long relief role to begin the season, though he’d be among the first men up in the event of an injury elsewhere on the staff.

Right-hander Javier Assad is also in the mix, though he missed nearly all of the 2025 season due to a severe oblique strain and posted a career-low 15% strikeout rate in the 37 innings he managed to tally late in the season. Assad still has minor league options remaining, so he could be sent to Triple-A to begin the year or else considered for a multi-inning relief role similar to the one Rea might occupy. Other options down in Triple-A include hard-throwing 26-year-old righty Ben Brown and former top prospect Jordan Wicks (also 26). Top prospect Jaxon Wiggins is not yet on the 40-man roster and has barely pitched in Triple-A, but he could be in line for a big league debut this coming season as well.

Of course, the Cubs will be eagerly awaiting the return of ace Justin Steele, ideally at some point in the season’s first half. The 30-year-old Steele was the team’s top starter from 2022-24, pitching a combined 427 innings of 3.10 ERA ball with plus strikeout, walk and ground-ball rates, but he made just four starts in 2025 before requiring UCL surgery in late April. Every rehab process is different, but it’s reasonable to expect that he could be back in June or July.

By the season’s second half, the Cubs could be looking at a rotation led by Steele, Horton and Cabrera, with veterans Taillon, Boyd, Imanaga and Rea among the options for the final couple spots. Injuries will almost always disrupt any team’s best laid plans, but that’s a quality group of arms that doesn’t even factor in Wiggins, who posted a 2.19 ERA and 31% strikeout rate in 18 starts (and one relief appearance) between Double-A and Triple-A last year.

On the Marlins side of things, Cabrera stood as an obvious trade candidate — but one who’d come at a fairly hefty price, given that salary and remaining club control. He landed on the back end of MLBTR’s Top 40 Offseason Trade Candidate list back in November.

It’s obviously not a financially driven move, but the Fish are deep in rotation options — with multiple top prospects nearing readiness — and have various holes in the lineup to fill. Swapping out Cabrera for a package headlined by Caissie works toward that end.

Even with Cabrera departing, Miami can roll out a rotation including Sandy Alcantara, Eury Perez, Ryan Weathers and Braxton Garrett in the top four spots. Journeyman Janson Junk had a surprisingly nice showing with the Fish in 2025 and is an option either in the fifth spot or long relief. The same can be said for righty Ryan Gusto, whom the Marlins acquired in the deadline trade sending Jesus Sanchez to Houston. Former top prospects Max Meyer, Dax Fulton and Adam Mazur are all on the 40-man roster, too. Current top prospects Thomas White and Robby Snelling could both debut this coming season. White, in particular, is regarded as one of the top prospects in the entire sport.

Caissie should step right into the Marlins’ outfield next season. The 23-year-old slugger made his big league debut this past season, struggling in a tiny sample of 27 plate appearances, but is a former second-round pick and longtime top prospect who has shredded minor league pitching. That includes a 2025 campaign in which he slashed .286/.386/.551 (139 wRC+) with 22 homers, 28 doubles and a pair of triples in 99 games/433 plate appearances of Triple-A work.

Caissie is a lefty-swinging corner outfielder with big power and big swing-and-miss tendencies. He fanned in nearly 28% of his Triple-A plate appearances last year. He’s regularly been able to offset the damage of those strikeouts by walking at high clips, however. He drew a free pass in 13.2% of his Triple-A plate appearances last year and has an overall 13.6% walk rate in five minor league seasons.

Scouting reports on Caissie praise his plus throwing arm but predict he’ll be limited to corner work (despite some early-career experience in center field). He has the makings of a prototypical three-true-outcomes right fielder. The Marlins could go with 2025 breakout slugger Kyle Stowers in left field and Caissie in right, thus giving them a pair of high-powered bats to plug into the heart of their order for the foreseeable future.

Because Caissie only made a brief MLB debut this past season, he still has six full seasons of club control remaining. He’s still rookie-eligible, so the Marlins could potentially pick up a draft pick for him via MLB’s prospect promotion incentive program, depending on when he’s brought up for his Marlins debut and (of course) on how he fares in awards voting early in his big league tenure. Caissie was only selected to the major league roster last offseason, meaning he’s only exhausted one minor league option year and still has two remaining.

Caissie joins Stowers and breakout center fielder Jakob Marsee in comprising a talented and intriguing outfield core. The Marlins’ lineup, in general, has gotten more interesting over the past couple years, thanks largely to the emergence of Xavier Edwards alongside those young outfielders. Former top catching prospect Agustin Ramirez hit for power in his rookie campaign this past season but struggled to get on base and played extremely poor defense behind the plate. Marlins president Peter Bendix has emphasized that the club hopes to continue developing Ramirez behind the plate, but he could see time at first base and DH in 2026, especially once top catching prospect Joe Mack debuts.

Hernandez, 22, is a speed-and-defense shortstop who spent the 2025 season with the Cubs’ High-A affiliate. Baseball America recently ranked him 16th among Cubs farmhands heading into the 2026 season, noting that he has plus raw power but hits the ball on the ground far too frequently to ever tap into that pop. (This past season’s seven home runs were a career-high.) BA’s report notes that Hernandez has the tools to be an above-average defender but is often inaccurate with his throwing despite good arm strength.

Improving the accuracy on Hernandez’s throws seems like a more attainable goal than overhauling his offensive approach to get more loft without compromising his lower-than-average strikeout rate, but if the Marlins can fix both those traits, it’s possible they’ll have a starting-caliber shortstop on their hands. Those are big “ifs,” of course, particularly considering that Hernandez just hit .252/.329/.365 as a 21-year-old in his second stint with the Cubs’ High-A affiliate. He’s a project, but a capable shortstop coming off a 52-steal season (61 attempts) is a nice secondary piece to add to the system.

De Leon is the furthest from MLB-ready. He’s an 18-year-old who signed as part of Chicago’s 2024 international class. The 6′, 170-pound De Leon played with the Cubs’ Dominican Summer League club in 2024, hitting .277/.431/.433 in 181 plate appearances. He moved up to their Rookie-level Arizona Complex League affiliate in 2025 and slashed .276/.353/.500 in 153 turns at the plate. BA’s Geoff Pontes listed him as a sleeper prospect to watch heading into the 2026 season, citing his encouraging exit velocities and plus raw power.

With just 334 professional plate appearances under his belt and his 19th birthday still six weeks away, De Leon is a pure development project for Miami. He’s been a productive hitter in each of his two pro seasons, though, even with some moderately worrying swing-and-miss tendencies (28.8% strikeout rate in 2025). He’ll probably head to the Marlins’ Low-A affiliate to begin the 2026 season and doesn’t seem likely to be a potential major league factor until 2028 or 2029 at the earliest.

The Marlins remain a work in progress and will most likely enter 2026 as something of a playoff long shot, but there are a number of upward-pointing arrows on the roster, making it an encouraging time for Miami fans.

Bleacher Nation’s Michael Cerami first reported that a Cabrera trade between the two teams was near completion. Kevin Barral of Fish On First reported Caissie as the likely headliner. Christina De Nicola of MLB.com and Craig Mish of SportsGrid broke the news of the other two prospects in the deal. Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported that the medical review process had been completed and that the trade was official.

Cubs Place Owen Caissie On 7-Day Concussion IL

By | at

The Cubs announced this afternoon that they’ve placed outfielder Owen Caissie on the 7-day concussion-related injured list. Outfielder Kevin Alcantara was recalled from Triple-A to replace Caissie on the active roster.

The move comes just one day after the Cubs recalled Caissie to the big league roster and optioned Alcantara to the minors. Caissie started yesterday’s game against the Rays but exited the game after hitting his head against the outfield wall at Wrigley Field while making a catch. Manager Craig Counsell told reporters (including Vinnie Duber of the Chicago Sun Times) that Caissie was being put through the concussion protocol after yesterday’s game. Evidently, Caissie’s symptoms were severe enough that they opted to place him on the shelf and get him time to recover.

That decision well might bring Caissie’s first season in the big leagues to an end, depending on the severity of his concussion symptoms. If that’s the case, he’ll end 2025 with just 12 games and 27 plate appearances in the big leagues, during which he collected five hits (including a double and a homer) and one walk against eleven strikeouts. That cup of coffee pairs with a strong performance with Iowa this year, where he slashed .286/.386/.551 with 22 homers and 28 doubles in just 99 games. A consensus top-50 prospect in the game, Caissie could get a lot more runway with the Cubs come next season if Kyle Tucker departs the club via free agency in the offseason.

For now, however, his roster spot will go to Alcantara. A fellow top Cubs prospect generally viewed as sitting near the back of the league-wide top 100, Alcantara has appeared in just three games this year. He’s gone 1-for-7 with three strikeouts this year and figures to serve mostly as a bench piece for the Cubs in the coming weeks, though injuries could offer him more opportunities. Both Kyle Tucker and Seiya Suzuki are currently unavailable; Suzuki due to an illness that has left him day-to-day in recent days, and Tucker due to a calf issue that’s sent him to the injured list. Fellow top prospect Moises Ballesteros (7-for-28 with three extra base hits) is getting a look at DH at the moment, and that leaves right field open for some combination of Alcantara and Willi Castro until Suzuki is ready to return to games. Once Suzuki is back, Alcantara, Ballesteros, and Castro will all be competing for playing time until Tucker’s eventual return to the lineup.

That might not be for a while, as Counsell told reporters (including Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic) on Friday that Tucker returning as soon as he’s eligible to be activated on Tuesday is “unlikely right now.” Perhaps that stance could change in the coming days, but Tucker has not yet resumed running since he was placed on the injured list. While the Cubs aren’t in danger of losing their playoff spot at this point, getting the star’s 140 wRC+ bat back into the lineup with enough time for him to get settled in before the playoffs begin seems sure to be a top priority for the Cubs over the season’s final two weeks.

Cubs Notes: Tucker, Crow-Armstrong, Caissie

By | at

The Cubs have been without Kyle Tucker since he exited Tuesday’s game against the Braves due to a calf issue, and it’s unclear when he’ll be returning to the lineup. Yesterday, manager Craig Counsell told reporters (as relayed by Marquee Sports Network on social media) that Tucker “didn’t really make progress” during Thursday’s day off, and would be out of the lineup for another day before adding that today would be a “big day” in terms of deciding how to proceed.

That language seemed to suggest that an injured list stint was in the cards for Tucker if he wasn’t healthy enough to return to the lineup today, and Jesse Rogers of ESPN reported that outfield prospect Owen Caissie was scratched from Triple-A Iowa’s lineup and brought to Chicago in case a roster move was necessary. Ultimately, however, Tucker remains day-to-day and out of the lineup without a roster move. Counsell told reporters (as noted by Marquee) today that the club thinks that they “have time to let this heal” without an IL stint, seemingly indicating that he’ll be back in the lineup within the next few days.

Injured list stints can be backdated a maximum of three days, meaning that if Tucker had gone on the shelf today he’d be eligible to return for next weekend’s series against the Rays. In that time, Caissie could have joined with fellow top prospect Kevin Alcantara to form a platoon in right field, with Pete Crow-Armstrong in center and Ian Happ in right while utility man Willi Castro and DH Seiya Suzuki serve as backup options in the outfield. Instead, the Cubs have opted to keep Tucker on the roster, with Suzuki and Castro splitting time in right field while Carlos Santana fills in at DH on days where Suzuki is in the outfield.

A roster move to bolster the outfield mix may yet be necessary, however. Crow-Armstrong exited today’s loss against the Nationals due to a knee contusion after fouling a ball off of his knee. As he told reporters (including Bruce Levine of 670 The Score) after the game, the incident has caused “a whole different kind of pain” than he’s used to. Crow-Armstrong went on to indicate that a decision on his status going forward won’t be made clear until tomorrow, but it seems feasible he might be ticketed for either an injured list stint or at least a few days off due to the injury. Having both Tucker and Crow-Armstrong unavailable on the bench would stretch the Cubs rather thin, given that both Justin Turner and Carlos Santana are limited to first base and DH duties only. Those two could handle DH while Suzuki, Castro, and Alcantara mix and match between right and center field, but that’s a less than ideal solution and simply placing one of their two ailing outfielders on the shelf to make room for Caissie may wind up being preferable.

The Cubs have the good fortune of having relatively little to play for over the final few weeks of the regular season. Fangraphs gives the club a 99.8% chance to secure a playoff spot this season, while their odds of surpassing the surging Brewers in the NL Central sit at a paltry 3.1%. With a Wild Card berth more or less guaranteed, Chicago could surely afford to place either Tucker or Crow-Armstrong (or, perhaps, both) on the injured list and fill out their roster with prospects at Triple-A already on the 40-man roster like Caissie and Moises Ballesteros if they think resting their stars could put them in a better position to win in October. Of course, with Crow-Armstrong slumping badly in recent weeks (.178/.225/.243 since August 1) and Tucker having recently broken out of his own slump, it’s also possible that they would benefit from getting as many reps as possible in order to get back on track before the playoffs.

Cubs To Call Up Kevin Alcantara, Option Owen Caissie

By | at

The Cubs will replace one outfield prospect for another on Monday, as ESPN’s Jesse Rogers reports that Kevin Alcantara will be called up from Triple-A Iowa and Owen Caissie is being sent back to Triple-A.  No further transaction is needed since Alcantara is already on the 40-man roster.

Alcantara made his Major League debut last September, appearing in three games for the Cubs right at the very end of the 2024 season and getting one hit in 10 plate appearances.  This remains Alcantara’s only big league exposure, as he has spent the entirety of the 2025 campaign in Iowa.  After hitting well in 35 Triple-A games in 2024, Alcantara has kept it going this year, with a .266/.349/.470 slash line and 17 home runs over 430 plate appearances this season.

A regular on top-100 prospect lists for a few years now, Alcantara was 71st on Baseball America’s preseason ranking and 90th on MLB Pipeline’s list.  Despite his solid numbers this year, Alcantara actually dropped out of both outlets’ midseason top-100 updates, though both BA and Pipeline each still have the outfielder ranked fifth within the deep Chicago farm system.  The biggest red flag is his 29.8% strikeout rate at Triple-A, as his power potential and hard contact ability is mitigated by the large amount of swing-and-miss in his game, and evaluators also note that Alcantara is only really productive against fastballs.

It seems likely that Alcantara would’ve received a longer look in the majors by now if he wasn’t on a team so deep in outfielders.  Between Kyle Tucker, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Ian Happ, and Seiya Suzuki (as a part-time OF and regular DH) all staying healthy and productive, only four other players have received any time in the Wrigleyville outfield during the 2025 season.  Utility players Willi Castro, Jon Berti, and Vidal Brujan each got a handful of games in the outfield, and Caissie made seven appearances on the grass during the 11 overall games of his first Major League call-up.

Caissie received 25 PA, and hit .208/.240/.375 while starting six of his 11 games.  The lack of playing time wasn’t a surprise given the crowded nature of Chicago’s outfield, yet the rather quick demotion adds to the question about why exactly Caissie was even called up in the first place.  Alcantara brings more defensive versatility since he can play center field, whereas Caissie is a corner outfielder.

Using top prospects as bench depth isn’t exactly ideal, though the Cubs are somewhat stuck (if that’s the correct term) between their twin desires of having their minor leaguers play every day, and also having the best active roster possible.  As limited as these cameos have been, giving Alcantara or Caissie some experience in the big leagues could be beneficial in advance of their possible inclusion on a playoff roster, or if an injury did arise to one of the Cubs’ outfield regulars.

Cubs To Promote Owen Caissie For MLB Debut

By | at

The Cubs are planning to promote top prospect Owen Caissie, as reported by Kiley McDaniel and Jesse Rogers of ESPN. The young outfielder is already on the 40-man, and he will presumably take Miguel Amaya’s spot on the active roster. Amaya sprained his ankle tonight and will require an IL stint. As for Caissie, the Ontario native is expected to make his MLB debut tomorrow against the Blue Jays.

The Padres selected Caissie in the second round of the 2020 draft, and they flipped him to the Cubs that winter as part of the trade package that brought Yu Darvish to San Diego. He has since worked his way up Chicago’s minor league system, turning into one of the team’s most promising prospects. Baseball America ranked him 21st in the organization in 2021, eighth in 2022, 13th in 2023, fifth in 2024, and second in 2025. He has also ranked among BA’s overall top 100 prospects in each of the past three years. Not every source was quite as high on Caissie entering the 2025 campaign; FanGraphs dropped him off their top 100 list after ranking him 65th in 2024, while The Athletic’s Keith Law has never included Caissie among his top 100 prospects. Yet, none ever doubted Caissie’s huge raw power – the question was whether he could translate that power into success at the highest level.

That question loomed larger than ever after Caissie slashed .278/.375/.472 with a .195 isolated power and a 115 wRC+ in his season at Triple-A in 2024. Those are solid but hardly earth-shattering numbers, especially not for a bat-first corner outfielder. However, the lefty slugger has taken a massive step forward this year, with 22 home runs and 50 extra-base hits in 92 games for the Iowa Cubs. His .281 ISO and 145 wRC+ both rank fifth among qualified hitters in the International League. His strikeout rate is still high – that has always and probably will always be an issue – but a 28.0% K-rate certainly isn’t fatal, at least not if he keeps drawing his walks and crushing home runs.

None of this is to say that Caissie is a sure-thing, middle-of-the-order jolt for the Cubs’ lineup. He’s still just a 23-year-old prospect who has to prove his swing-and-miss issues won’t sink him against MLB pitching and, in particular, left-handed MLB pitching. Still, it’s exciting that he’s joining the team for the stretch run as they look to hold on to the NL’s top Wild Card spot and try to challenge the seemingly unstoppable Brewers for the NL Central crown. Any offensive boost he can provide will be much appreciated. The Cubs rank among the league’s best offensive teams on the season, but they’ve struggled as of late, scoring just 34 runs in 11 games since the trade deadline.

With that said, it’s worth wondering where Caissie would fit into Chicago’s lineup. He can play the corner outfield or DH, and the Cubs are set at those positions with Kyle Tucker, Ian Happ, and Seiya Suzuki. Tucker bats lefty like Caissie, while Happ is a switch-hitter with stronger splits against righty pitching. Suzuki bats right-handed, but he doesn’t have any trouble facing same-handed pitching. Ultimately, as the cliché goes, this is the best kind of problem for manager Craig Counsell to have. He can take advantage of Caissie’s presence on the roster to give his veterans a bit more rest, particularly the slumping Tucker. As long as Caissie hits, it will work out quite nicely. On the other hand, this means there’s quite a bit of pressure on the youngster to perform right away. The Cubs are as competitive as they’ve been in several years, and they can’t afford to take away reps from Tucker, Suzuki, and Happ if Caissie isn’t producing.

The roster fit isn’t perfect, but the Cubs only had four healthy minor leaguers on the 40-man roster to choose from, and it’s hard to argue that Caissie didn’t earn this opportunity over fellow top prospects Kevin Alcántara and Moisés Ballesteros, or the less-heralded Ben Cowles.

Image in post courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, USA TODAY Sports.

Cubs Interested In Raisel Iglesias, MacKenzie Gore

By | at

The Cubs are known to be looking far and wide for pitching upgrades at the deadline, with both long-term and short-term arms on the team’s radar.  Two more names can be added to Chicago’s pitching search, as The Athletic’s Patrick Mooney writes that Braves closer Raisel Iglesias “is one of several options under consideration” for bullpen help, and the Cubs are also “very interested in” the possibility of trading for Nationals southpaw MacKenzie Gore.

Iglesias is the much more clear-cut trade candidate of the two, as Iglesias is a free agent at season’s end and the struggling Braves are nowhere near the playoff race.  While Iglesias has a 5.09 ERA over 40 2/3 innings, his 3.00 SIERA is over two runs lower, and his strikeout/walk/hard-hit ball rates range from strongly above-average to elite.  The veteran righty’s ERA reflects Iglesias’ tendency to get hit particularly hard when he does get hit, as 10 of his 23 earned runs allowed this season were contained within just three outings (April 21 against the Giants, June 5 against the Diamondbacks, and July 19 against the Yankees).

It is clear that Iglesias still has plenty left in the tank at age 35, and could be a big help to a team in need of high-leverage relievers.  The bullpen isn’t quite as glaring a need as it seemed for the Cubs earlier in the season, yet the relief corps has been shaky over the last month, and adding Iglesias to the mix is an obvious improvement.  Daniel Palencia has been a revelation as the Cubs’ closer, but given his lack of a proven track record, Chicago could prefer to have an established closer like Iglesias on hand.

Gore seems like a much more speculative pitcher on the wishlist.  Nationals interim GM Mike DeBartolo recently said that his team was planning to retain its young core at the deadline, and made of point of including Gore in that cornerstone group, saying it is “not a focus of mine to move him.”  There is seemingly no rush for DeBartolo or the organization to consider trading a pitcher who is arbitration-controlled through the 2027 season, and Mooney notes that an interim general manager like DeBartolo might not get the green light from ownership to pull the trigger on “a monumental decision” like moving a pitcher who has emerged as the ace of Washington’s rotation.

Even if the door may not be completely closed on the possibility of Gore being traded, the Nats’ asking price is unsurprisingly “viewed as sky-high,” Mooney writes.  For two-plus years of a frontline starter, it is easy to picture Washington demanding multiple high-level prospects and at least one young player who is close to MLB-ready.  As hefty as this ask might be, the Cubs are perhaps one of the few teams that has enough blue-chip minor league depth to make the Nationals at least consider dealing the 26-year-old All-Star.

Owen Caissie, for instance, is the type of elite prospect that would surely be a priority for the Nats in any Gore trade package.  The outfielder is crushing Triple-A pitching for the second consecutive season and seems to have little left to prove in the minors, except Chicago’s outfield (and overall lineup) is deep enough that there’s no current place for Caissie to break into the Show.  That could change quickly if Kyle Tucker departs in free agency this winter, higlighting Caissie’s importance as a long-term asset in Wrigleyville.

Mooney writes that the Cubs are very likely not going to offer Caissie in a trade for a rental player, and would only be inspired to move him at all if a controllable talent (like Gore) is on the table.  In a particularly interesting detail, Mooney reports that Caissie would have been part of a proposed trade between the Cubs and Marlins for Jesus Luzardo this past offseason that was eventually scuttled when Chicago had concerns over Luzardo’s medicals.  This provides some context for what it would take for the Cubs to move Caissie, yet his big Triple-A numbers in 2025 have probably made the team even more loath to part with the outfielder.

Cubs Notes: Caissie, Assad, Shaw

By | at

Cubs outfielder Owen Caissie has been shut down, per manager Craig Counsell, as relayed by Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times. The outfield prospect is battling left groin tightness. Lee mentions that Caissie underwent offseason core muscle surgery, though it’s unclear if his current issue is related to that procedure.

Caissie, 22, is on the 40-man roster but was unlikely to earn an Opening Day roster spot. That’s more to do with the overall roster picture than anything about Caissie in a vacuum. He’s a top 100 prospect who hit .278/.375/.472 for a 121 wRC+ in 127 Triple-A games last year. He was added to the 40-man in November to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft.

The Cubs’ big league outfield is slated to be crowded, with Ian Happ, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Kyle Tucker in three spots. Seiya Suzuki will likely be in the designated hitter spot with regularity but could tag in for those others on occasion. Alexander Canario was designated for assignment earlier today but Jon Berti and Vidal Bruján are likely to be on the bench in utility roles.

Tucker is slated for free agency after this season and both Happ and Suzuki will hit the open market the following winter. That should open more long-term playing time but Caissie and fellow outfield prospect Kevin Alcántara appear slated for more Triple-A work in 2025, at least to start the year. Alcántara has just one option year remaining, perhaps giving him a slight edge in terms of earning a major league chance if an injury opens up some big league playing time. For as long as Caissie is shut down, the Cubs will have a bit less outfield depth but shouldn’t be in trouble unless a few more injuries pop up in the outfield mix.

Turning to the pitching staff, it was revealed last week that right-hander Javier Assad was out with some oblique soreness. That was later diagnosed as a mild strain, per Lee last week. Counsell relayed today that Assad has resumed playing catch.

That hopefully indicates that Assad is more or less on schedule, as he projects to be in the Opening Day rotation as long as he avoids the injured list. He will slot in at the back of a starting mix that includes Shota Imanaga, Justin Steele, Matthew Boyd and Jameson Taillon. If Assad were out of action, then perhaps swingman Colin Rea would step up. But that may not be necessary, allowing Rea to serve as a long reliever out of the bullpen. Assad has a 3.40 earned run average in 294 innings for the Cubs over the past three years, mostly as a starter.

On the infield, Counsell says Matt Shaw has been hitting in the cage and throwing. Like Assad, he had been slowed by an oblique issue but it appears both are making progress. Assuming Shaw stays healthy for the next few weeks, he’s the favorite to earn the third base job out of camp. However, the Cubs have been clear that he will have to earn the job and it won’t just be handed to him.

He will therefore have to be healthy enough to get on the field in the next few weeks and show the Cubs he’s worthy of the gig. The timeline is a little tighter than some other teams, as the Dodgers and Cubs are heading to Japan soon for the Tokyo Series. Those two clubs will be playing exhibition games against Japanese clubs on March 15th and 16th, before playing regular season contests against each other on March 18th and 19th.

Shaw slashed .284/.379/.488 for a wRC+ of 146 between Double-A and Triple-A last year. If he doesn’t secure the job out of camp, then some combination of Berti, Bruján, Justin Turner and Rule 5 pick Gage Workman would likely be the fallback options. Nicky Lopez and Dixon Machado are non-roster invitees with some big league experience in camp.

Cubs, Padres Have Discussed Dylan Cease

By | at

The Cubs are among the teams that have discussed right-hander Dylan Cease with the Padres, per Jon Morosi of MLB Network. There’s no indication that the two sides are close to any sort of deal or that discussions were anything more than exploratory.

Cease, 29, has been bandied about the rumor mill for much of the winter as a payroll-crunched Padres club struggles to find ways to address myriad roster holes. A free agent following the 2025 season, Cease is slated to earn $13.75MM this year. Trading him for a controllable, lower-cost outfielder could affordably plug one lineup hole while also freeing up more than $13MM to backfill the rotation. Alternatively, the Friars could build a Cease deal around controllable, low-cost (and also less-proven) rotation pieces and look to reallocate Cease’s salary to a bat that’s yet to find a home in free agency or a trade target in the outfield. The Padres have at least gauged interest in impending free agents like Michael King, Luis Arraez and Robert Suarez (signed through 2027 but with an opt-out next offseason) under similar rationale.

The Cubs already have a deep rotation featuring Justin Steele, Shota Imanaga, Jameson Taillon, Matthew Boyd and Javier Assad. Free agent signee Colin Rea gives them a veteran sixth option, and Chicago has younger names like Jordan Wicks, Ben Brown and Caleb Kilian on the 40-man roster, with prospects Cade Horton and Brandon Birdsell climbing the minor league ladder.

Given that stock of arms, the Cubs don’t necessarily need another starting pitcher, but there’s an argument that some of that depth and their impressive stock of high-end position prospects could be condensed into a front-of-the-rotation arm like Cease. Morosi highlighted top outfield prospect Owen Caissie as a potential piece of a Cease trade in an on-air segment this morning, albeit in fairly speculative fashion.

Coupling Caissie or another touted outfielder like Kevin Alcantara with a controllable arm that lacks Cease’s ceiling but could be a third or fourth starter (e.g. Wicks, Assad) could hold some appeal to a Padres club that lacks rotation depth, a clear left fielder or designated hitter, and has a shaky-at-best collection of options to fill out manager Mike Shildt’s bench. Anecdotally, a trade involving Cease and Caissie would send each player back to their original organization; Cease was a sixth-round pick of the Cubs who was traded to the White Sox in exchange for Jose Quintana, while Caissie was a Padres second-rounder who went to the Cubs as part of the Yu Darvish trade.

Outfield is an area of depth for the Cubs, who have Ian Happ in left field, young Pete Crow-Armstrong in center and trade acquisition Kyle Tucker in right field. The acquisition of Tucker has pushed slugger Seiya Suzuki into a primary DH role, though he’ll surely still see some corner time depending on injuries or off-days for other members of the outfield. Tucker is a free agent at season’s end, but Happ and Suzuki are both signed through 2026 while Crow-Armstrong can be controlled all the way through 2030. Both Caissie and Alcantara are generally viewed as MLB-ready pieces who could step into the majors as soon as this season after posting big seasons in the upper minors in 2024. (Alcantara made a brief MLB debut late in ’24 already.) Infielder and fellow top prospect James Triantos also got a bit of work in the outfield in 2024. He’s on the cusp of his MLB debut as well.

The circumstances surrounding a potential trade of Cease are fairly similar to those of Corbin Burnes one year ago. While Cease has had a bit more volatility in terms of year-over-year results and doesn’t have a Cy Young Award to his credit, he’s a top-end starter with a relatively reasonable salary and one season of club control remaining. He’s unlikely to sign an extension, as was the case with Burnes, but could net a new team a draft pick if and when he rejects a qualifying offer next winter. That holds some inherent value and helps to offset the prospect loss required to pry Cease loose in a trade. The Orioles sent two MLB-ready players who’d garnered top-100 fanfare — infielder Joey Ortiz and lefty DL Hall — to the Brewers along with a 2024 competitive balance draft pick (No. 34 overall).

That was a steep price to pay, and perhaps Cease’s value isn’t quite to that same level, but it shouldn’t be far off. At the very least, it provides a rough blueprint for what San Diego could reasonably seek in exchange for a power-armed 29-year-old who landed second in 2022 American League Cy Young voting.

Payroll-wise, the Cubs have more than enough space to add Cease’s salary while still remaining comfortably south of the $241MM luxury threshold and leaving space for in-season acquisitions. RosterResource projects Chicago at a bit more than $207MM in luxury obligations after their recent acquisition of Ryan Pressly, giving them about $34MM of cushion between their current standing and that tax barrier.

Cubs Designate Brennen Davis, Adbert Alzolay For Assignment

By | at

The Cubs made a series of roster moves ahead of today’s deadline for protecting players from the Rule 5 draft. Per Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune on X, the club has selected outfielder Owen Caissie and infielder Ben Cowles. To open roster spots for those two, outfielder Brennen Davis and right-hander Adbert Alzolay have been designated for assignment. It was reported earlier today that Alzolay was likely to be DFA’d. Kiley McDaniel reported on Caissie and Cowles (X links) prior to the full slate of moves being revealed.

Davis, 25, was once one of the top prospects in baseball. A second-round pick of the Cubs in 2018, he tore through the minors and Baseball America ranked him the #16 prospect in the league going into 2022. He had slashed .260/.375/.494 across High-A, Double-A and Triple-A in 2021 for a 140 wRC+ and seemed to be on the cusp of an exciting debut.

Unfortunately, his stock has fallen since then and he still hasn’t cracked the majors. He required back surgery in the middle of 2022, which was followed by core surgery in 2023 and then a fractured ankle in 2024. Through those ailments, he has only played 179 games over the past three years, slashing a paltry .200/.319/.345 while on the field.

The Cubs added him to their 40-man roster two years ago, to keep him out of the 2022 Rule 5 draft, but the ongoing injury woes have nudged him off the roster. They will now have a week to figure out what’s next, whether that’s a trade or putting him on waivers. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so a trade would have to come together in the next five days. He does still have one option year remaining, so perhaps some club would be interested in taking a flier on him to see if he can stay healthy and get back on track.

Caissie, 22, is now in the position Davis was in a few years ago. A second-round pick from 2020, he is now ranked as one of the top 100 prospects in the league. He has slashed .278/.383/.470 over the past four years for a 129 wRC+. Given his prospect status and the fact that he has already played a full season at the Triple-A level, he is one of the most obvious roster additions of today.

His path to the big league club isn’t clear right now, as the Cubs have Pete Crow-Armstrong, Cody Bellinger, Ian Happ, Seiya Suzuki and Mike Tauchman all in the mix for playing time in the outfield and the designated hitter slot. Perhaps an offseason move will change that picture or an injury will open some playing time, though time will tell on that.

Cowles, 25 in February, was a Yankee prospect until coming over to the Cubs a few months ago in the deadline deal that sent Mark Leiter Jr. to the Bronx. He produced a .077/.294/.077 line after that trade but the Cubs will be banking on what he did beforehand. He slashed .294/.376/.472 in 88 Double-A games before switching clubs, also stealing 14 bases while playing the three infield spots to the left of first base. He’ll give the Cubs some depth around the dirt but has just three games of Triple-A experience, so might be ticketed for more time on the farm.

Big Hype Prospects: Rafaela, Amador, Langford, Madden, Caissie

By | at

Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s get to it.

Five Big Hype Prospects

Ceddanne Rafaela, 22, OF, BOS (MLB)
(AA/AAA) 485 PA, 20 HR, 36 SB, .302/.349/.520

Rafaela is the latest top prospect to earn a promotion. The defensive wunderkind has posted impressive hitting stats, albeit without much support under the surface. For instance, Rafaela has 14 home runs in 219 Triple-A plate appearances, an impressive power display by any measure. However, he’s done this with a 25.9 percent HR/FB ratio and below-average exit velocities. The guys who maintain high HR/FB ratios do it by crushing baseballs on the regular. Rafaela also has both poor discipline and serious swing-and-miss issues. That he succeeds despite these flaws indicates a path forward in the coming years. For now, consider him a glove-first option with an explosive but exploitable bat.

Adael Amador, 20, SS, COL AA)
(A+) 259 PA, 9 HR, 12 SB, .302/.391/.514

Though he’s no Ethan Salas, Amador is still one of the youngest players in Double-A. As yet, he only has two games at the level. He’s gone 2-for-8 with a walk and two steals. Amador is a switch-hitting middle infielder with a Kwan-like feel for the strike zone and contact. He still sells out for contact a little too much, and too many of his balls in play are on the ground. Even so, he’s trending toward a 2024 debut for a Rockies club in desperate need of a viable leadoff hitter. And that’s exactly what he looks like – a long-term up-the-middle leadoff guy.

Wyatt Langford, 21, OF, TEX (A+)
(A+) 88 PA, 3 HR, 6 SB, .314/.455/.586

A candidate to go first overall in the 2023 draft, Langford “fell” to the Rangers at fourth overall. He tore through the complex in 14 plate appearances before landing in High-A. The right-handed outfielder has more walks than strikeouts and as many extra-base hits as singles – indicating High-A isn’t much of a challenge. The main knock against him is defense. He’s fast enough to be a plus fielder, but he reportedly gets poor reads off the bat. His speed helps him to make up ground. I like to give players with his athleticism a pass on their poor defensive reputations in college. A professional environment without the pesky distractions of college sometimes unlocks an extra hunger to improve.

Ty Madden, 23, SP, DET (AA)
(AA) 103 IP, 10.92 K/9, 3.93 BB/9, 3.84 ERA

Dating back to last season, Madden now has 30 starts at Double-A. He features a classic four-pitch repertoire of roughly average offerings complemented by average or better command. Variety and command have allowed him to miss bats at a high rate. One glaring issue is a hefty home run rate. I don’t have the data necessary to diagnose if those dingers are the result of a simple or complicated issue. Presumably, they’re at least of moderate concern since he remains in Double-A.

Owen Caissie, 21, OF, CHC (AA)
458 PA, 21 HR, 6 SB, .282/.387/.525

Caissie has the Joey Gallo starter kit –plus discipline, 80-grade power, and a 32.8 percent strikeout rate. There’s some cause for hope. Caissie’s 13.9 percent swinging strike rate is well-below even Gallo’s best seasons. Both sluggers spent their age-20 campaign in Double-A. Gallo had a 23 percent swinging strike rate at the time – though he also hit 42 home runs that season. Teams have grown increasingly adept at using players in the situations for which they’re best suited. Caissie appears destined for a highly managed role, one in which he might shine as brightly as baseball’s top stars.

Three More

Robby Snelling, SDP (19): A bat-missing southpaw, Snelling was somehow only the second-youngest player the Padres promoted to Double-A last week (yep, I’m going to keep bringing up Salas). Despite strong results overall, reports indicate Snelling is a long way from a Major League debut. His fastball lacks special traits. Success will depend on his slider, an impressive offering for which he currently lacks command.

Yu-Min Lin, ARI (20): Min earned a promotion to Double-A right around Snelling’s age. He perhaps serves as a cautionary tale since they both feature unimpressive fastballs. Unlike Snelling, Lin has solid command and his primary weapon is a changeup. He’s struggled to a 5.19 ERA in Double-A.

Colton Cowser, BAL (23): One of the hottest first-half hitters in the minors, Cowser struggled to drink from his jumbo-sized cup of coffee. His MLB-hangover has followed him back to Triple-A. Since demotion, he’s batting .250/.348/.500 with a 34 percent strikeout rate in 47 plate appearances.

Did I miss a detail or nuance? DM me on Twitter @BaseballATeam to suggest corrections.

Show all

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top