Cubs’ Hartshorn surge sparks hope, but patience

Josiah Hartshorn’s breakout in his first pro season has earned him a spot among MLB.com’s top 100 prospects, but Cubs leadership is urging fans to slow down—he’s still only 19. In the same week, Craig Counsell railed at rainouts that disrupted the Cubs’ Mets s

NEW YORK — The Cubs don’t have to mention a rebuild for fans to start scanning the future. Josiah Hartshorn is doing the kind of damage that makes optimism spread fast.

It’s also why Jed Hoyer is trying to temper the excitement with one simple fact: “He’s 19.”

Hoyer was speaking about the slugging prospect who is already beginning to turn heads in his first taste of professional baseball this season. Selected in the 2025 sixth round. Hartshorn is now in MLB.com’s rankings of the top 100 prospects in the sport. a sign that his performance is no longer just a minor-league story.

On Tuesday. the switch-hitting Hartshorn posted a line of .302/.421/.559. with 13 home runs and 56 RBIs in 63 games split between Class A affiliates in Myrtle Beach and South Bend. For Cubs fans, those numbers land like a promise. For the organization, they’re evidence—useful, encouraging, but not the finish line.

Hoyer called the breakout “fun to watch on a nightly basis,” saying, “He’s been great.” But he also pushed back on the idea that it means the next big moment is right around the corner. “You’re talking about what steps he needs to take or what you need to see. But it’s nice,” he said.

That reaction runs through the way the organization talked about it: once a prospect breaks out. it energizes more than the scouting department. “In these jobs. obviously you have the major league stuff. but when you have a prospect really break out and do this. it’s fun for the whole organization. ” Hoyer said. “The scouting department feels great, player development feels good.”.

The Cubs’ confidence doesn’t come out of nowhere. Last summer. the team committed to Hartshorn with a $2 million signing bonus—described as a record for a player taken in the sixth round. The gamble was shaped by a specific belief: that he offered something difficult to find and valuable to build around.

“Finding a guy that can really hit from both sides is really hard,” Hoyer said. “So many switch-hitters are small middle infielders. that’s kind of the profile.” He said the attraction was that Hartshorn wasn’t just comfortable against lefties and righties—he “controls the zone from both sides. ” and he can “hit for power from both sides.”.

As they planned draft strategy last summer, Hoyer said the Cubs also saw an opportunity to structure the spending. The team’s approach wasn’t framed as using leftover money in the sixth round. “As we were talking about draft strategy. the ability to save some money at the top of the draft and invest it later on. that was something that emerged as we talked through it. ” he said. “And Hartshorn was always the focal point of that.”.

Hoyer added that it wasn’t a case of deciding late in the process to reach. “That wasn’t a situation where we had money left over in the sixth round [and figured], ‘Let’s use it.’ That was the guy we targeted.”

If Hartshorn’s success offers a forward-looking kind of excitement, the Cubs’ present week carried a different feeling—frustration.

Cubs manager Craig Counsell was none too pleased with a decision to postpone Monday night’s scheduled series-opener with the Mets due to forecasted rain. He said, “Frankly, yesterday’s game did not need to be rained out.” He added, “It didn’t rain. And for some reason, we didn’t play.”

Counsell’s complaint wasn’t only about the missed game; it was about the bluntness of how it was handled afterward. “Major League Baseball tells you the game’s cancelled, and that’s it,” he said before Tuesday’s game, which was also impacted by rain.

It marked the second consecutive rainout for the Cubs. For Counsell, the timing matters because it can scramble pitching plans. Monday’s rainout and the Wednesday doubleheader it created raised the kind of logistical pressure that doesn’t show up on stat sheets.

While the calendar has forced detours, the Cubs are also still searching for solutions inside their roster.

One of the new pieces is right-handed pitcher Jayden Murray, a player the Cubs landed in a trade with the Astros last weekend. Murray has made 17 career major league appearances, but the team is working from a different split of his results—one he believes points toward what could come next.

In eight relief outings with the big league team, Murray had a 7.43 ERA. In 14 appearances with Triple-A Sugar Land, he posted a 1.17 ERA.

Counsell said the minor-league track record is what makes the move feel more than speculative. “This is a guy that’s had a lot of success in the minor leagues,” he said. “In the big leagues, he’s got just a limited opportunity. … We think it’s a player that’s ready to succeed in the big leagues.”

For Cubs fans, Hartshorn’s breakout gives a clear reason to look ahead. For the staff, though, the message is still the same: enjoy the progress, but keep your expectations tethered to what comes next.

And on a week when rain has already disrupted the Mets series, that patience may be tested—but the organization’s messaging, from Hoyer to Counsell, is aimed at building through both excitement and uncertainty.

Chicago Cubs Josiah Hartshorn Jed Hoyer Craig Counsell Mets series Jayden Murray Astros trade MLB prospects Myrtle Beach South Bend Triple-A Sugar Land