Former Chicago Cubs phenom has become a strikeout machine

The Chicago Cubs needed another pitcher over the winter, so they made the painful decision to trade top outfield prospect Owen Caissie to the Miami Marlins in exchange for right-hander Edward Cabrera.

While Cabrera was terrific in 2025, many looked at the deal with a side eye given his injury history and considering the buzz surrounding Caissie. Was it really wise to move Caissie in exchange for an injury-prone pitcher who has really only had one good season?

Well, the early returns for the Cubs have been decent, as Cabrera owns a 3.06 ERA through his first six starts. Yes, he has surrendered three earned runs in each of his last four outings, but he hasn’t gotten shelled, and he owns a respectable 3.70 FIP and 1.189 WHIP.

It would be nice if the 28-year-old started striking out more batters, as he is averaging a pedestrian 7.4 punchouts per nine innings, but perhaps that will come with time.

But what about Caissie? Well, after a strong start to the 2026 campaign, the former top prospect has fallen into quite a quagmire.

Former Chicago Cubs prospect Owen Caissie has become a strikeout machine

Caissie has played in 29 games thus far this season and owns a .207/.250/.345 slash line with two home runs and 15 RBI over 96 plate appearances.

As if Caissie’s rough slash line weren’t bad enough, a deeper look into his numbers shows that the 23-year-old is struggling even more than you would imagine, as he has already struck out 41 times over this first month-plus in Miami.

That’s good for a strikeout rate of 42.7 percent, which could indicate that Caissie was not yet prepared for big-league pitching.

The 6-foot-4 outfielder played very well for Team Canada in the World Baseball Classic, managing a 1.241 OPS across 21 trips to the dish, but over the course of a larger sample size, his production has faded significantly.

Remember: Caissie did have strikeout issues in the minor leagues, as well, as he fanned 121 times through 433 plate appearances at Triple-A Iowa in 2025. He was also rung up 159 times over 549 trips to the dish in 2024.

So, yeah: this isn’t really anything entirely new, but he also wasn’t striking out at this ridiculous rate.

Perhaps Caissie will get straightened out as the season progresses, but there is no doubt that “Big Red” has not gotten off to a very auspicious start with the Marlins.

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