Cubs International Free Agent Signing Is Showing Flashes of Elite Talent in 2025

The Chicago Cubs are off to a decently strong start this season, with an 11-8 record which leads the National League Central. This has been heavily fueled by their impossibly strong offense led by Kyle Tucker, Seiya Suzuki, Carson Kelly, and a remaining mix of veterans with younger prospects. While some of their younger pieces like Matt Shaw have had a tough start to the year, that is somewhat expected with rookies as they continue to develop and learn about the MLB level.

With that in mind, the farm system for the Cubs has continued to grow, and the talent that is being displayed across practically all levels of their feeder teams is impressive. While some players go unnoticed in their efforts, others have begun to draw media attention and raise their stock early in the 2025 season.

One of the players who has done the latter recently is infielder Cristian Hernández, who has been on an absolute tear so far this year as he works towards making a debut in Double-A. While he currently sits in High-A South Bend, he has been tearing the cover off the ball through nine games so far, slashing .417/.475/.667 with six RBI, five runs, a home run, and seven strikeouts to three walks.

His defense at shortstop has also been impressive. In 51.2 innings he has six putouts and 16 assists on 22 chances, turning three double plays, with no errors, good for a perfect 1.000 fielding rate. He had a little more trouble in his limited time at second base, posting 15 innings with three putouts and two assists alongside one error, which is good for a .833 fielding rate.

Errors are something Hernández will have to work on as he continues to move up through the minor leagues - in 2024 he had 20 and in 2023 he had 17. Aside from the errors however, he has been producing at a high level offensively, and has shown positive flashes in the field as he works on improving his game.

The 2021 international signing has taken a decent amount of time to climb through the lower levels in Chicago's farm system but as a player who received $3 million out of the gate to be signed, the team clearly values his skillset extremely highly. His ability to steal bases has been on display as well which is one of his core elements, having swiped 44 bags in 2024 and only being caught eight times, meaning he was successful around 85% of the time.

Hopefully as the season goes along he can improve further defensively, and continue to prove the franchise right for taking a shot on him a few years ago.