Have We Seen the Last of Owen Caissie on the Cubs in 2025?

On September 1st, the Chicago Cubs announced that they had sent Owen Caissie back down to Triple-A, and they were calling up Kevin Alcantara to take his spot.

Caissie was called up in August to take Kyle Tucker’s spot in right field, allowing him to take a few games off to recover from a hairline fracture in his hand. 

Caissie received limited time on the field, only seeing 24 plate appearances. In that time, he batted .208 with a .615 OPS. He also notched his first career home run, an opposite field shot against the Brewers in just his fourth game.

After missing just two games, Tucker returned to the lineup on August 21st and got scorching hot, hitting .364/.462/.727, with four home runs, 11 RBIs and a 227 wRC+ across 12 games played.

With Tucker thriving again, the Cubs decided to make the top prospect flip of Alcantara for Caissie.

A day after they made the roster move, Tucker was pulled from a game due to calf tightness. He has been held out of the lineup ever since, although he has yet to hit the IL.

To make matters worse, Pete Crow-Armstrong fouled a ball of his knee on September 6th, forcing him to miss a game, before returning to the lineup as a DH on the Monday. With the Cubs outfield suddenly bruised and battered, can Alcantara play a big role down the stretch, or is there still a chance we have yet to see the last of Caissie?

Alcantara’s Journey to Wrigley Field

The Cubs acquired Kevin Alcantara and RHP Anthony Vizcaino from the Yankees in 2021 for Anthony Rizzo and cash. Alcantara has gone through the Cubs’ entire farm system, starting in rookie ball in 2021, and going through High-A, Double-A, and eventually making it to Triple-A in late 2024. 

After 35 games in Triple-A, he was called up and saw limited time at the end of the 2024 season with the Cubs, even less than Caissie as a matter of fact. He played the final three games of the season, receiving only 10 plate appearances, and recording just one hit.

He had spent all of 2025 in Triple-A, recording a .266/.349/.470 slash line and hitting 17 home runs, the highest total for a single season of his minor league career. A natural center fielder, Alcantara is a better defender than Caissie, making more suited to the fourth or fifth outfielder role the Cubs were looking to fill.

The other part to Alcantara’s upside is that he is a viable option to platoon partner for a struggling Pete Crow-Armstrong. It is no secret that PCA hasn’t been playing at the level that he was earlier this season, and his struggles against lefties are cause for concern. 

Alcantara has monster numbers against lefties at Triple-A this year, posting a .323/.396/.602 slash line and a .991 OPS in 93 at-bats. PCA on the other hand, has hit just .188/.218/.388 with a .606 OPS.

Even with Tucker missing the last five games, and PCA missing one, Alcantara only saw his name penciled into the starting lineup twice, with both starts coming in center field against a lefty. Against right-handers, the Cubs have opted for either Seiya Suzuki or the versatile Willi Castro in right field.

If Caissie had still been on the roster, you can only wonder if he would have gotten some of those starts instead. But moving forward the role for Alcantara is pretty set in stone, as a short-side of the platoon bat in center field.

So What Does This Mean for Caissie?

After getting reps at the MLB level for the first time, Caissie seems to be pretty comfortable. Prospects tend to get rushed quite often, but Caissie may be the opposite. He spent all of 2024 in Triple-A, and has played over 200 games for the Iowa Cubs in the last two seasons, the most out of any top 100 prospect. 

In that time, he’s delivered solid results. In 2025, he slashed .284/.385/.553 with a .938 OPS, a serious improvement on his 2024 numbers. The main improvement has been to his power, hitting 22 home runs in under 400 at-bats, compared to 19 home runs in 472 at-bats the year prior. This improved his slugging percentage from .472 to .553, and his OPS from .847 to .938.

With all this time in the minors, it seems like the only thing stopping Caissie from the MLB is a position where can fit in. As long as Tucker can stay on the field, it would seem that Caissie’s next big league opportunity is not likely to come until 2026.

Looking Ahead to 2026

With the Cubs seemingly bound the postseason, it may be foolish to look to next year. However, the offseason storylines always linger in the background when you have an impending free agent who is the caliber of player as Kyle Tucker.

We saw this play out last year with Juan Soto and the New York Yankees. While the playoff were going on, and Soto was delivering heroics in pinstripes, the talk of his free agency was held to a murmur. That is until the minute the Yankees’ season ended in Game 5 of the World Series.

The first thing anyone wanted to talk about in the Yankees clubhouse after the game was Soto and his impending free agency, and the same questions will be asked this year once the Cubs’ season ends. Whether that be after a short-lived playoff run, or even if they go all the way.

Only time will tell what lengths the Cubs will go to re-sign Tucker, who could sign a contract worth over $400 million as the top free of the 2026 MLB Free Agent Class. If the bidding gets to a point that is too uncomfortable for the Cubs’ ownership, Caissie will be the plan B for Tucker, just like he was for three weeks ago.

Caissie’s demotion is not so much due to poor performance, but more a result of the Cubs current roster and needs. With Tucker healthy and PCA struggling, Alcantara fits the mold of what the Cubs need down the stretch of the season.

However, come 2026, the Cubs will have some serious decisions to make, and those decisions could open the door for Caissie to make the jump to MLB, or could make him one of the hottest commodities on the trade block if there is not path to playing time at Wrigley.