Chicago Cubs’ red-hot prospect is making his case for a call-up

The Chicago Cubs, despite a big 10-4 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday, are still not where they’d like to be at this time, both in terms of performance and results. Currently last in the NL Central Division with an 8-9 record, the team needs to make changes, especially to spark some more offense.

More News: Why are Chicago Cubs extension bros—PCA and Nico—going in alarmingly different directions?

The problem is that there’s no obvious place where they could make those changes on the roster. All positions have been won and are accounted for, as is DH. It would be tough to find a spot that would—or could—benefit from an in-house change right now.

The only exception to that is, possibly, right field, which is presumed to belong to Seiya Suzuki now that he’s back from his knee injury. And, even then, it’s doubtful that the Cubs would move the Japanese star from his spot just five games into his season.

So, all of that begs the question of what to do with Kevin Alcantara, who is absolutely raking in Iowa.

Kevin Alcantara is on fire

More News: Chicago Cubs urged to explore addition of recently DFA’d former All-Star pitcher

The 23-year-old outfielder has been murdering the ball at Triple-A so far this season and hit two more home runs yesterday in a game against the Columbus Clippers. On the season, the lanky 6-foot-6 right-handed bat has 7 home runs and 13 RBIs in 14 games and 51 at bats.

This is obviously not a pace that he’s going to keep up over the long haul of the season, but this sudden burst of hard contact—along with a walk rate hovering around 12%—at this stage of his development is worth watching, despite a still-elevated strikeout rate of 34.5%

Alcantara came to the Cubs from the New York Yankees organization in 2021, along with pitching prospect Alexander Vizcaino, in the trade that shipped off Anthony Rizzo amid Jed Hoyer’s great talent purge of 2021.

The young asset, himself, seems to be quite aware of the weight of the trade and how he needs to live up to the faith the Cubs organization placed in him.

“He’s a legendary Chicago Cubs player but I need to show that they made the right trade,” Alcantara recently told The Des Moines Register. “I need to show it’s a good trade…I need to show one day I can win a championship for the team.”

After four full seasons in the Cubs farm system, there are still mixed feelings on the toolsy native of the Dominican Republic.

His ranking on the big board of MLB prospects places him in the No. 41–66 range on most Top 100 lists, although last season he fell off some of them as several analysts believed that his development had stagnated.

This season, however, he’s come out red-hot and is justifying his placement as no. 3 prospect in the Cubs organization.

What’s best for Alcantara—and the Cubs?

The question is whether he’s better served at Triple-A, playing every day, or in the majors as a fourth outfielder getting a small handful of at bats per week.

One thing is for sure, though. Chicago is hoping that Alcantara’s hot streak isn’t just an early-season fluke and that he’s finally living up to his full potential as a multi-tool weapon.

With Ian Happ and Seiya Suzuki eligible to become free agents at the end of this season, the Cubs will need a capable impact outfielder to make up for the loss of one or both veterans.

The post Chicago Cubs’ red-hot prospect is making his case for a call-up appeared first on ChiCitySports.

Source: https://www.chicitysports.com/chicago-cubs-kevin-alcantara-red-hot-prospect-call-up-iowa/