Josiah Hartshorn didn’t exactly leave room for debate in 2026.
The 19-year-old Cubs prospect, drafted in the sixth round out of high school in the 2025 MLB Draft, spent his first pro season racing through the system instead of settling in. He moved from Low-A to Double-A over the course of the year and produced a .284/.407/.518 line, good for a 140 wRC+ across 125 games. Hartshorn added 23 home runs and 17 steals, and he became the first teenage Cubs prospect in more than 20 years to drive in 100 runs in a single season.
So when MLB Pipeline named him the Cubs Prospect of the Year, it hardly qualified as a shock. It was just the latest piece of hardware for a player whose stock surged all season long.
The Cubs also got a strong result on the pitching side, where Brooks Caple was recognized by MLB Pipeline as the organization’s top pitching prospect in 2026. A ninth-round pick in 2024, the 24-year-old right-hander shook off a rough first year in the organization and took a clear step forward this season.
Caple posted a 3.09 ERA and 3.66 FIP over 107⅔ innings, with most of that work coming in Double-A Knoxville. The numbers behind the performance tell the story of a pitcher who cleaned things up in a major way: his strikeout rate jumped from 17.3 percent to 25.5 percent, his walk rate improved from 10 to 7.3 percent, his batting average allowed dropped from .259 to .213, and his whiff rate climbed from 20 percent to 28.1 percent. He allowed a few more fly balls instead of grounders, but that was a minor tradeoff for the overall jump he made against better competition.
Hartshorn and Caple both finished the year in Double-A after Hartshorn’s late-season promotion. Neither is on the 40-man roster yet, which likely pushes an Opening Day shot in Chicago out of reach. But that also keeps the door open for them to continue playing in the minors during the MLB lockout, a setup that could speed up their paths to the big leagues.
Given all the movement in the system in recent years through trades, promotions, and stalled developments, Hartshorn and Caple now sit near the front of the Cubs’ prospect picture. MLB Pipeline ranked Hartshorn No. 1 in the organization and Caple No. 9, and the way both players build on their breakout seasons will shape not just their own futures, but Chicago’s plans too.
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The complication is that the alternatives behind Kelly do not make the path especially clean. Miguel Amaya and prospect Owen Ayers are part of the internal catching picture, but neither removes the need for Chicago to think carefully about how much it can afford to lean on the spot. Kellys market only adds to the intrigue, since he is regarded as one of the better catchers available in free agency and should draw multi-year offers, leaving the Cubs to weigh whether keeping him in place is a luxury or a necessity. [Read more 🡒]