Wrigleyville Prospect Weekly: Cepeda's Power Month Peaks, McCullough Deals at Double-A
By Reed Kubiak ·
Wrigleyville Prospect Weekly covers the last 7 days of action for the Cubs farm system.
Cepeda Keeps Hitting Bombs at South Bend
Angel Cepeda (A+, SS, Rank: 29) went 9-for-23 with a double, a homer, and five RBI over the week, adding a hit-by-pitch and drawing one walk against five strikeouts. Those numbers extend what has become a legitimately remarkable final month at South Bend. Over the last 30 days, Cepeda is slashing .311/.406/.667 with nine home runs, three doubles, 25 RBI, and a 11.3 percent walk rate across 23 games at High-A. Nine home runs in 23 games is not a contact bat warming up; it is a 20-year-old infielder doing real damage in the middle of the lineup. For the season at High-A, he sits at a .267/.389/.442 line with 11 home runs, 48 RBI, and a 14.4 percent walk rate across 306 plate appearances, with 12 stolen bases layered in.
The honest scouting picture on Cepeda heading into this season was a balanced but modest one: a 50 hit tool, 50 power, second-division projection at second base. The current profile is playing up. His season swing rate of 44.6 percent sits right at league average, and the contact rate of 64.6 percent is a genuine concern, particularly against breaking balls where his chase tendencies can get exposed. But the last 30 days show a contact rate ticking toward 68.7 percent alongside the power explosion, which is not the combination you expect from a hitter being undone by advanced sequencing. The walk rate has not collapsed despite the power surge, which suggests he is hunting pitches he can lift rather than simply ambushing anything in the air. The power grade of 50 is going to need a second look before the offseason. There is still a real question about whether the hit tool can carry the profile against upper-level arms, and defensive settling at second base remains part of the projection, but the bat he has shown over the final month of the season is harder to dismiss than a utility grade implies. I would take the over on the second-division ceiling if this contact-rate improvement holds into next year.
McCullough's Best Start, Then the Development List
Brody McCullough (AA, RHP, Rank: 36) threw five innings at Knoxville, allowing two hits and no runs while striking out 10 of the 17 batters he faced, walking none, and generating 20 swinging misses on 82 pitches. A 59.8 percent strike rate and 10 strikeouts over five hitless innings produces a line that puts a name in your head, particularly for a 26-year-old who has spent much of his pro career fighting through arm-related setbacks. He has a 50-grade fastball sitting 93-to-95, a curveball that flashes average, and enough stuff to miss bats in bursts when the delivery syncs up; that was on full display here. Over the last 30 days at Double-A, he had produced a 3.93 ERA across 18.1 innings with a 30.8 percent strikeout rate and only a 5.1 percent walk rate before this outing, so the command sharpening was already a trend. The season ERA at Knoxville sits at 3.38 across 37.1 innings.
The difficult footnote is that McCullough was transferred to the Development List on September 4, the day after this start, so the timing puts a question mark on what comes next. His durability record is part of the profile; multiple forearm and soft-tissue issues have kept his innings total thin and made it harder to project a full starter's workload. The best-case read on this outing is that the stuff is genuinely there when he is healthy and his delivery is locked in, and the 20 swinging misses on 82 pitches argues that the bat-missing ability he showed in college is not gone. The realistic projection remains a back-end starter or up-down arm, and the Development List move underscores the durability concern rather than erasing it. But for one night in Tennessee, he looked like the version of this pitcher that makes you want to keep watching.
Quick Hits
- Josiah Hartshorn (A+, 1B, Rank: 1) · drove in four on six hits, including a homer and three doubles, over 24 plate appearances while drawing four walks. He now has 23 home runs and 110 RBI on the season across 547 combined plate appearances at two levels, and over the last 30 days at South Bend he is slashing .326/.445/.596 with a 17.3 percent walk rate and a 39.6 percent swing rate. A 19-year-old working that selectively while hitting for power in High-A is genuinely unusual.
- Tyler Schlaffer (AA, RHP, Rank: 41) · went six innings, scattered three hits and three walks, and struck out 10 without allowing a run, generating 18 swinging misses on 95 pitches. The season ERA at Knoxville sits at 4.09 across 83.2 innings, but over the last 30 days the ERA is 0.96 with a 30.6 percent strikeout rate against a 6.9 percent walk rate in eight appearances. The fastball has taken a real step forward in 2026, sitting 95-to-96, and the power curve is the most promising secondary. His projection lands as a middle reliever or up-down arm, but this stretch has looked like more than that.
- Kane Kepley (AA, OF, Rank: 8) · went 6-for-23 with a double, a triple, two RBI, two walks, and a hit-by-pitch over the week. The production at Double-A has been more modest than what he showed at South Bend: a .217 average with a .400 on-base percentage across 120 plate appearances at Knoxville. Still, a 16.2 percent walk rate, 17.1 percent strikeout rate, and 88.2 percent contact rate over the last 30 days at this level show that his contact-and-patience formula is translating. He is also up to 64 stolen bases on the season combined. The power will never be the story, but a 55 hit, plus-speed center fielder with those on-base rates is worth watching as a potential everyday contributor.
- Caden Sorrell (A+, OF, Rank: 3) · was promoted from Myrtle Beach to South Bend on September 8 in his first assignment to High-A. He hit .295/.347/.523 with five home runs and eight stolen bases in 95 plate appearances at Low-A, and the promotion makes sense given the production. Worth keeping an eye on as the Cubs see what he can do with a level jump before the season closes.
- Jayden Murray (AAA, RHP, Rank: 34) · was acquired from the Astros in exchange for minor league first baseman Cameron Sisneros. Murray is 29 and projects as an up-down middle reliever; his three-inning outing at Iowa this week produced a 1 ER, four strikeouts line, but his last-30-day ERA at Triple-A sits at 10.00 across nine innings, with a 21.3 percent walk rate that is well off his prior form. The season at Sugar Land, where he posted a 1.17 ERA across 15.1 innings, showed what he can be when the command is there. The Cubs will need to see which version shows up.
- Kade Snell (A+, OF, Rank: 19) · delivered a six-hit, six-RBI week across 24 plate appearances with a home run and three walks. Over the last 30 days he is hitting .313 with a 19.6 percent strikeout rate and six extra-base hits in 107 plate appearances, which looks nothing like the .167 debut he put up at High-A to close 2025. He is a bat-first left field profile with limited speed and range, projecting as a quad-A type, but the contact ability and improving power mix are worth monitoring as he builds a consistent track record.
- Owen Ayers (AAA, C, Rank: 9) · went 2-for-17 with a double and a walk across 17 plate appearances, a stretch for a catcher who hit .304/.417/.591 with 16 home runs at Double-A earlier this season. At Iowa over the last 30 days, the line reads a .203 average with a .333 on-base percentage and a 22.2 percent strikeout rate. The swing stiffness against upper-level velocity is a documented concern in his profile, and the Triple-A sample is now where that gets tested most directly. The season numbers, including 25 home runs and 80 RBI across three levels, still make the case that the bat is real; this is more of an adjustment stretch than a verdict.
- James Triantos (AAA, 2B, Rank: 10) · was held to 2-for-16 with two walks and a hit-by-pitch over 16 plate appearances at Iowa. Over the last 30 days he has hit .276 with a 16.4 percent walk rate and only a 12.3 percent strikeout rate in 73 plate appearances, so the contact ability is intact even if the power stays limited. He is a 55 hit tool, contact-first second baseman, and the season line at Triple-A reads .304/.358/.442 across 447 plate appearances with 26 stolen bases. The slow week does not change the profile.