Three Cubs Prospects Claim Weekly Minor League Player Awards

Three Chicago Cubs prospects won either player of the week or pitcher of the week in their respective leagues for the week of May 12-18.

Each league announced its awards on Mondays at MiLB.com.

In the International League, Carlos Pérez won player of the week honors for Triple-A Iowa. In the Southern League, it was a clean sweep, as Corey Joyce won player of the week and Will Sanders won pitcher of the week for Double-A Tennessee.

Carlos Pérez

Pérez, a catcher, took advantage of the additional playing time afforded by the promotion of Moises Ballesteros to the Majors.

In five games against St. Paul, Pérez slashed .615/.737/1.615 with five doubles, two home runs, seven RBI and six walks.

For the week, he led the International League in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS (2.352) and extra-base hits.

Pérez signed with the Cubs on a minor league deal in the offseason but didn’t make the Major League roster out of spring training. The 34-year-old Venezuelan has 786 MLB at bats and 4,092 minor league at-bats entering the week.

For the season he’s slashed .313/.430./703 with five home runs and 18 RBI.

Corey Joyce

The 26-year-old shortstop has never played in the Majors and was a 12th round pick of the Detroit Tigers in 2019 out of North Carolina Central. In six games last week he went 12-for-23 with two doubles and three RBI. He boosted his batting average from .242 to .357 in a week and for the month of May, he has slashed .452/.514/.613.

He joined the Cubs at the end of March on a minor league deal after the Tigers released him from his contract at Double-A Erie. He has a lifetime minor league slash of .236/.360/.364 with 24 home runs and 123 RBI.

Will Sanders

The right-hander was tremendous in his only start last week, as he threw six innings, allowing one hit and striking out seven. It lowered his season ERA to 2.29.

After a solid April he’s had a tremendous May, as he is 3-0 with a 0.56 ERA in three starts. He’s allowed seven hits and one earned run in 16 innings, with 18 strikeouts and two walks. For the season he is 3-1 with a 2.29 ERA in eight starts, with 39 strikeouts and eight walks in 39.1 innings.

The Cubs’ fourth-round pick from 2023 played his college baseball at South Carolina and went 2-8 with a 4.66 ERA last season in the organization.