With Paul Skenes and Luis Gil taking home their leagues' respective 2024 Rookie of the Year Awards, it's time to turn our attention to 2025.

Season No. 32 of the Arizona Fall League is in the books, with the Salt River Rafters beating the Surprise Saguaros, 3-2, in the Championship Game on Saturday. It was another fall full of top prospects and top performances. Below is the 2024 MLB Pipeline All-AFL Team. This is based

Week 5 in the Arizona Fall League was about spotlighting the best the top prospect circuit had to offer, with Fall Star festivities limiting regular-season AFL play to only four days in the desert. These two players stood out for squeezing exceptional performances into that small sample. Mesa corner outfielder/infielder

Here are the top performers from the fifth week of AFL action:

SURPRISE, Ariz. -- The rapid ascent of Moises Ballesteros continues. The Cubs landed the catcher for $1.2 million out of Venezuela in January 2021, and all he’s done ever since is hit. He reached Double-A Tennessee in 2023 as a 19-year-old, so expectations were high for the organization’s No. 4

Here are the top performers from the third week of AFL action:

CHICAGO – The Cubs have overhauled their farm over the past four years, creating one of baseball’s top systems via blockbuster trades, fast-moving Draft picks and international signings. While some prospects have graduated to Chicago already, more can be classified as coming soon. The top-heavy Minor League system has created

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – The Cubs didn’t give Jonathon Long specific instructions after taking him in the ninth round of last year’s Draft. That was by design. The Long Beach State first baseman/third baseman was coming off his best collegiate season yet, hitting .312/.404/.600 with 15 homers in 55 games, but

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Moises Ballesteros is getting accustomed to playing on loaded teams. The Cubs catcher began 2024 at Double-A Tennessee, the lone club in the Minors with four Top 100 Prospects on its Opening Day roster: right-hander Cade Horton, infielder Matt Shaw, outfielder Kevin Alcántara and second baseman James

This story was excerpted from Jordan Bastian's Cubs Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

SURPRISE, Ariz. -- Moises Ballesteros can be found at the following address this autumn: Home Plate Valley of the Sun, Arizona MLB No. 44 overall prospect is making a residence at and behind the dish during his time in the Arizona Fall League, and as Ballesteros proved Sunday for Mesa

CHICAGO -- As Cam Smith made his way through the Cubs’ clubhouse at Wrigley Field on Saturday morning, shortstop Dansby Swanson walked by. The first-rounder admitted feeling a bit starstruck during that moment of his visit to the Friendly Confines. “He’s just like a normal human. I feel like he’s

PHILADELPHIA -- The Cubs had been weighing the value of bringing outfield prospect Kevin Alcántara up to the big leagues for the last handful of games this season. What Chicago did not want to do was promote the talented outfielder just to occupy a spot on the bench. With right

The Cubs have more outfield options than most clubs. At the big league level, veterans Ian Happ and Seiya Suzuki are signed through 2026, Cody Bellinger has player options for each of the next two seasons and Pete Crow-Amstrong has been one of the game’s most dynamic rookies since the

The next crop of Wrigley Field sluggers surged in unison Sunday. Matt Shaw, Owen Caissie, Moises Ballesteros and Kevin Alcántara contributed to nine of Triple-A Iowa's runs in a 17-10 loss to Louisville at Principal Park. The Top 100 prospects combined for 13 hits -- seven for extra bases --

This story was excerpted from Jordan Bastian’s Cubs Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

We here at MLB Pipeline can never get enough Minor League Baseball. If you're reading this, we're guessing the same can be said for yourself. Now we've made it easy for you to take in four games at a time and up to eight games total, all from the comfort

Many miles separate the duo that used to hit back-to-back in the Florida State lineup, but their connection seems to extend beyond that. Cam Smith and James Tibbs III both knocked their first High-A homers -- and they both went to left-center field -- on Wednesday night. Tibbs' dinger for

Last week, we looked at the top farm systems based on infield talent. This week, let’s go from the dirt to the grass. Below is a ranking of the top 10 organizations when it comes to those who patrol the outfield, using a combination of top-end Top 100 talent and

This story was excerpted from Jordan Bastian's Cubs Beat newsletter. Jake Crouse filled in for this edition while Bastian is on vacation. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

All farm systems, whether they’re at the top or the bottom of organizational rankings, have differing strengths. We’ve decided to dig deeper into a few of those talent buckets over the next few weeks. This week, we’ll take a look at the top farm systems based on infield prospects. Using

Cam Smith did it again. The Cubs' 2024 first-round Draft pick continued the hotter-than-hot stretch of his early pro career by homering in his sixth consecutive game en route to Single-A Myrtle Beach’s 5-2 win over Charleston. Smith smashed a game-tying two-run homer off left-hander Dalton Fowler (Rays), sneaking it

Cam Smith watched his latest home run leave Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Ballpark and had just one thing to say to himself before running around the bases: “Wow.” The dinger extended his streak to homers in five consecutive games during his first full month as a professional with Single-A Myrtle