One Chicago Cubs prospect got their career moving in the right direction in 2023, according to MLB Pipeline.
The site put together a list of prospects across baseball who improved so much last season that they could find themselves increasingly on their organization’s radar for 2024 and beyond.
For the Cubs, that prospect was shortstop Luis Vazquez.
Vazquez is one of those prospects who has taken a long time to develop, as he joined the Cubs in 2017 after they drafted him in the 14th-round pick out of a Puerto Rican high school. Only in the past two years has the 24-year-old been able to stick with Double-A Tennessee and Triple-A Iowa for a full season.
But the wait may be worth it for the Cubs, who admittedly are set in the middle infield with Dansby Swanson at shortstop and Nico Hoerner at second base.
In 124 games in 2023, he batted .271/.361/.456/.817 with 72 runs, 24 doubles, 20 home runs, 80 RBI, 54 walks and 121 strikeouts.
The key for Vazquez is that he put up career numbers in full-season ball in just about every category, and his improvement from 2022 was stark. His batting average went up from .225.
So what happened? Per MLB Pipeline, Vazquez made one swing tweak, which was to lower his hands at the plate.
Right now Vazquez is the No. 21 prospect in the Cubs’ organization. Because of his tenure within the organization, he was eligible for the Rule 5 Draft and the Cubs moved him to the 40-man roster to protect him.
The Cubs assigned him to Triple-A Iowa after purchasing his contract and he is playing winter ball abroad. He’ll be a part of Cubs Spring Training as he fights for what will likely be one or two utility jobs on the roster.
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