The Chicago Cubs have all eyes on the Southwest this month.
As the MLB Playoffs are still in full swing, the Chicago Cubs are following Jedd Hoyer's words. The Cubs President Of Baseball Operations made it clear at the MLB Trade Deadline this past summer that they would shift their focus to “2025 and beyond.” They will look to take that next step towards that goal with some of their top prospects on full display in the desert.
The Arizona Fall League began this past week, and the Chicago Cubs have sent eight players to play for the Mesa Solar Sox over the next six weeks. The organization will look to showcase some of its top talent in the system, including Moises Ballesteros, the 44th-best prospect in baseball according to MLB Pipeline. There are plenty of other names to keep an eye on.
On Wednesday, MLB released a list of who they believe to be possible sleepers in the Arizona Fall League in 2024. For Chicago, they went with right-handed pitcher Vince Reilly. The 23-year-old pitcher is fairly new to the Cubs organization as he joined them this past offseason.
“Picked up by the Cubs this March, he displayed a 93-98 mph fastball and promising slider and splitter while posting a 3.88 ERA, .213 average-against and 52/16 K/BB ratio in 53 1/3 innings.”
Before his time with the Cubs, he spent time with Hawaii and Grand Canyon University. He was a vital piece to the Hawaii bullpen before transferring to Grand Canyon for his final two years of college. While with GCU, he picked up 14 saves for the Antelopes. Following college, Reilly was selected in the 18th round of the 2022 MLB Draft by the Oakland Athletics. He pitched only 4.2 innings inside the A’s farm system before ultimately being released in June 2023.
The Cubs pitcher is considered an under-the-radar player to many as he do not appear among the organizations Top-30 prospect lists. Chicago does have the eighth best farm system in baseball according to Pipeline. Reilly has yet to see any action in the first two games of the AFL season so far for Mesa, but will soon look to make an immediate impact.
All of the Arizona Fall League games are available for free on MLB’s AFL Website. If you miss any action, the games are also archived for access online. The season will conclude on November 18th with the championship game.
