{"id":539561,"date":"2026-01-26T22:14:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T22:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/539561\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T22:14:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T22:14:19","slug":"keith-laws-recent-prospect-ranking-is-interesting-for-the-cubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/539561\/","title":{"rendered":"Keith Law\u2019s Recent Prospect Ranking Is Interesting For The Cubs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, both Baseball America and MLB Pipeline came out with their annual prospect rankings for the 2026 season. Both sites had very similar prospect rankings for the Chicago Cubs<\/a>. \u200b<\/p>\n

Moises Ballesteros and Jaxon Wiggins were the only two Cubs prospects<\/a> to be featured on both Baseball America and MLB Pipeline\u2019s new top 100 rankings. Both Ballesteros and Wiggins were ranked within the top 80 on both sites.<\/p>\n

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\u200bWell, a new set of prospect rankings came out on Monday morning, courtesy of Keith Law<\/a>. He went through his top 100 prospects in baseball ahead of the 2026 season. \u200b<\/p>\n

And his rankings are very interesting.<\/p>\n

He has three Cubs prospects ranked inside the top 100. Those players were Kevin Alcantara (No. 41), Ballesteros (No. 47), and Jefferson Rojas (No. 79). \u200b<\/p>\n

One key player left off Law\u2019s prospect rankings is Wiggins. Both Baseball America and MLB Pipeline had him ranked in the top 100, but Law had him completely off his list. After a breakthrough Minor League campaign<\/a> in 2025, his absence is notable. \u200b<\/p>\n

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Seeing Alcantara and Rojas featured on Law\u2019s rankings is a pleasant surprise. While both experienced some struggles throughout the Minor League season last year, it\u2019s clear they have the potential to take off.\u200b<\/p>\n

Alcantara hit .266 with 17 home runs, 26 doubles, 69 RBI, and 10 stolen bases across 102 games with the Iowa Cubs in 2025. He also spent some time on the Major League roster, hitting .364 (4-for-11) with one RBI, one walk, and one stolen base.<\/p>\n

\u200bLaw is definitely higher on Alcantara than most other sites, given that he was unranked by both Baseball America and MLB Pipeline. Law, though, liked what he saw from the young outfielder in his first full season in Triple-A.<\/p>\n

\u200bThe 23-year-old will now have every opportunity to make the Cubs\u2019 Opening Day roster. He will fight for a bench spot on the team throughout Spring Training and has the tools to contribute to the 2026 roster.<\/p>\n

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\u200bTurning to Rojas, this marks the second occasion on which the middle infielder has cracked a top 100 list. His first appearance came in MLB Pipeline\u2019s rankings before the 2025 season, where he placed 97th overall. \u200b<\/p>\n

Rojas had a pretty up-and-down season last year, as he hit .236 with 11 home runs, 59 RBI, and 19 stolen bases across 106 games at High-A and Double-A. His .236 average marked a career low, while his 11 home runs were a personal best. \u200b<\/p>\n

His main struggles last year came once he was promoted to Double-A. He only slashed .164\/.279\/.205 with zero home runs, six doubles, 15 RBI, and five stolen bases across 39 games with the Knoxville Smokies. \u200b<\/p>\n

So, there\u2019s a lot that Rojas needs to improve on in 2026. The good news for him is that he has plenty of time to work on those things down in the Minors. The earliest he will likely be called up is 2027. \u200b<\/p>\n

Seeing Alcantara and Rojas on Law\u2019s list is definitely unexpected, but both have the tools to develop into solid big leaguers down the line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week, both Baseball America and MLB Pipeline came out with their annual prospect rankings for the 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2399],"tags":[1898,5,3969,138,24,4245,161,24392,9673,11304,9675,4,991,1896],"class_list":["post-539561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-cubs","tag-ballesteros","tag-baseball","tag-baseball-america","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-chicagocubs","tag-cubs","tag-jaxon-wiggins","tag-jefferson-rojas","tag-keith-law","tag-kevin-alcantara","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-pipeline","tag-moises-ballesteros"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115963708584531554","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}