Wrigleyville Prospect Weekly: Hartshorn Keeps Mashing, Conrad Erupts in His First Full Week at Myrtle Beach
By Reed Kubiak ·
High-A Is Already Homework for Josiah Hartshorn
Josiah Hartshorn (A+, OF, Rank: 1) went 7-for-21 with a homer, a double, four walks, and four RBI on the week, reaching base at a clip that has become routine for a 19-year-old who was supposed to be a developmental sixth-round prep bat. The strikeout count was two. Two. Against High-A arms with professional breaking balls and three-pitch mixes, he walked more often than he swung and missed. Over the last 30 days the picture is even sharper: hitting .319 with a .440 on-base percentage, three homers, six doubles, two triples, and 26 RBI across 20 games. He has driven in 26 runs in a month. The season line across two levels reads .285/.406/.520 with 18 home runs and 92 RBI in 99 games, numbers that belong to a player two or three years ahead of where he actually sits on a development timeline.
The profile is a switch-hitter with a 55 power grade and a 50 hit tool projected as a second-division first baseman, and that projection deserves another look. The pressure point on any corner-only profile is that the bat has to carry everything, and right now it is doing that with room to spare. His walk rate is not a fluke: 70 free passes on the season, with the patience feeding both the on-base percentage and his ability to hunt pitches he can drive for real damage. The question is no longer whether he can handle Single-A or High-A. It is whether Knoxville gets him before September, and whether the Double-A assignment reveals anything that resembles a ceiling. Based on everything he has done so far, the second-division projection reads conservative.
Ethan Conrad Reminds Everyone Why He Was a First-Round Pick
It took Ethan Conrad (A, OF, Rank: 2) about a week to remind everyone why the Cubs went to him early. He went 11-for-27 with two homers, two doubles, a triple, 12 RBI, and two walks while striking out just three times across the week. That is an absurd line at any level, and for a 22-year-old first-rounder whose brief Single-A sample had been modest, it resets the conversation about where he actually is as a hitter. The season slash at Myrtle Beach sits at .229/.295/.417 through 25 games before this week's explosion, so there had been legitimate questions about whether his approach was tightening against full-season arms. One week does not erase those questions entirely, but 11 hits with power to all parts of the field suggests the bat is starting to catch up to the competition level.
Conrad is a 55 hit tool, 55 power bat with plus athleticism and a ceiling as an everyday left fielder. The concern coming in was chase tendency and whether professional sequencing would expose swing decisions that played fine in the ACC. The last 30 days tell a more nuanced story: hitting .253 with a .319 on-base percentage, three homers, and 18 RBI, which is solid production even accounting for the pre-explosion dip. The power has been real since the jump to pro ball, and the five-homer season total across two levels understates the quality of contact he is capable of making. If this week is the beginning of a stretch rather than an outlier, a promotion to South Bend by late September is not out of the question. More importantly, it is a reminder that the tools are there; it is just about how fast the approach matures against pitching that can locate secondaries.
Quick Hits
- Brooks Caple (AA, RHP, Rank: 26) · was the best pitcher in the system this week, throwing 3.2 hitless innings out of the Knoxville bullpen while striking out seven against two walks. He has now posted a 2.60 ERA over his last 30 days at Double-A across 17.1 innings with 21 strikeouts, and the combined season ERA sits at 3.13 through 86 innings at two levels. A 95 mph fastball with some ride paired with a slider that has enough shape to chase is playing up in short stints. The up-down reliever projection may be underselling what he can do when the command is there.
- Kane Kepley (AA, OF, Rank: 9) · drew five walks and added a homer and a double across 19 plate appearances in his first extended Double-A action, picking up four RBI in the process. His first four games at Knoxville after a full season at South Bend have produced a .474 on-base percentage, which is on-brand: over his last 30 days at High-A he was walking in more than a quarter of his plate appearances with a .467 OBP. He is a 60 field, 60 speed, 55 hit-tool center fielder with 52 stolen bases on the season, and the bat has found a way to be useful even with a 35-grade power projection. The Double-A promotion is the next real test of whether the approach survives against pitchers who can attack the zone more aggressively.
- Tyler Schlaffer (AA, RHP, Rank: 34) · struck out four and allowed no runs over four innings on two hits and a walk. Over the last 30 days he has been effective at Knoxville, posting a 1.26 ERA across 14.1 innings with 14 strikeouts and no home runs allowed. His season ERA of 5.04 across 64 innings does not reflect the recent stretch at all, and the changeup, his best pitch, has been generating weak contact at a different rate than earlier in the year. He is 25 with a back-of-rotation ceiling, but the last month of work has been encouraging.
- Jaims Martinez (RK, SS, Rank: 36) · reached base nine times in 17 plate appearances, drawing eight walks against just three strikeouts, with a double and a triple mixed in for four RBI. The 35 walks and .439 on-base percentage on the season from a 17-year-old shortstop in rookie ball is not an accident; the zone feel is the most advanced part of a profile that still has a long runway. He is 50 hit, 40 power, 55 speed at present, but the approach is already ahead of where most teenage DSL infielders are when they make the jump stateside.
- Johan Geraldo (RK, SS, Rank: 33) · went 5-for-15 with three doubles and a triple for two RBI in rookie ball. His 19 stolen bases and .371 on-base percentage on the season reflect a player with legitimate on-base instincts, even if 44 strikeouts in 170 plate appearances remain a concern for a 17-year-old learning to handle better velocity. The power upside is real on a still-projectable frame; the hit tool just needs time.
- Ariel Armas (AA, C, Rank: 27) · drove in five on five hits, including a homer and two doubles, over 21 plate appearances. Over his last 30 days at Knoxville he is slashing with a .450 slugging percentage and a .361 on-base percentage across 18 games, a stretch that looks nothing like the .217 season average that preceded it. He is a 60 glove, 55 arm catcher projecting as a bench piece, so the bat does not need to carry much. But three homers in the last month in Double-A changes the floor a little.
- Caden Sorrell (A, OF, Rank: 8) · went 5-for-24 with a homer, a double, a triple, and four walks in his first six games at Myrtle Beach after being drafted 41st overall this year. The 2026 first-rounder is a 60 power, 60 speed, 60 arm center fielder whose biggest question is a 45-grade hit tool, and nine strikeouts in 28 plate appearances keeps that question alive early. The physical tools, though, are obvious from the jump.
- Fernando Cruz (A, SS, Rank: 43) · reached base seven times in 16 plate appearances, collecting six hits including two doubles. The 19-year-old shortstop is slashing .248/.336/.522 with 14 homers across two levels this season, a power output that is well ahead of the 50-grade projection. The walk rate has been thin and the 92 strikeouts in 259 plate appearances remain the central obstacle for a profile that needs the hit tool to develop for the up-the-middle projection to hold.
- Will Sanders (AAA, RHP, Rank: 21) · returned from the injured list on August 8 and was promptly placed back on the IL the following day after allowing seven earned runs in 1.1 innings. His Iowa ERA sits at 5.22 across 50 innings. The back-to-back IL stints are a concern for a pitcher who flashed a 1.17 ERA at High-A earlier in the year; whatever he is working through has not resolved, and the path back into rotation consideration at Triple-A has gotten steeper.
- Juan Cabada (A, SS, Rank: 6) · was promoted from the ACL to Myrtle Beach on August 11, the lone first promotion to a new level among ranked prospects this week. He hit .283/.387/.434 with two homers and two stolen bases across 62 plate appearances in the ACL. At the org's sixth-ranked prospect, he is worth watching as he makes his full-season debut.
- Nazier Mulé (A+, RHP, Rank: 29) · struck out six over five innings of one-run ball, walking two. Over the last 30 days at South Bend he has punched out 20 batters in 12 innings, though six earned runs in that stretch reflect the walk rate (four free passes across three outings) that has been a constant. He sits 95-98 with a 60-grade fastball and the strikeout ability is never in doubt; the command at 40 grades is the reason the projection is back-end starter at best and reliever fallback at worst.