After enduring three straight years of missing the playoffs, the Chicago Cubs set out on a goal to be playing baseball in the fall this season.
That was apparent in the winter when they made an aggressive move to hire Craig Counsell as manager, letting go of David Ross despite giving him the dreaded vote of confidence.
They were able to make some moves in free agency and via trades that bolstered their roster enough to have them competing for a playoff spot, but they'll need to play much better than they have recently if they're going to make that a reality.
While missing out on the postseason has been painful, it also allowed them to retool their pipeline by trading away players to get prospects back in return.
The Cubs' farm system has turned into one of the best in all of baseball, having loads of top talent across every level.
Joel Reuter of Bleacher Report took a look at each team's pipeline and listed the best players across every affiliate.
For Chicago, he put Cade Horton in Triple-A, Matt Shaw at Double-A, Jefferson Rojas with their High Single-A affiliate, Cristian Hernandez at Single-A, and Fernando Cruz in rookie ball.
Horton and Shaw should come as no surprise.
The starting pitcher and third baseman are ranked as the Cubs' No. 1 and 3 prospects respectively, and there is tons of buzz surrounding both players.
It's been said for a while that Horton could become a future ace of this staff, while Shaw could finally step into the full-time third base role that this organization has desperately been looking for.
Rojas is a super-talented 19-year-old who has impressed at a young age and climbed three different levels of their pipeline to get to this point. He's still a work in progress, but he could become a real option for them down the line at shortstop.
What's interesting is that Hernandez and Cruz are listed as shortstops, as well.
Both are not even 20 years old yet and seem to be scratching the surface of what they can do in a professional setting.
With Chicago desperately hoping they get into the playoffs this season, there's a chance the front office makes another aggressive move at the deadline and offloads some of these talented prospects for established MLB stars.
Because the players on this list are so talented, they might be considered "off limits," so they're certainly names to continue monitoring if they are held onto past July 30.
