(670 The Score) Cubs outfield prospect Pete Crow-Armstrong on Thursday earned an honor that landed him among the game’s elite youngsters who are still in the minor leagues, as he was tabbed to play in the Futures Game on July 16 at Dodger Stadium amid the All-Star festivities.
Crow-Armstrong, 20, is hitting .308 with nine homers, 36 RBIs and an .888 OPS in 57 games split between low-A and high-A this season. He’s currently playing at high-A South Bend and while he has struggled early on there with a .653 OPS in 19 games, the Cubs have been enthused by his progress this season.
“Specifically for Pete, his defense is something that’s major league-caliber,” Cubs general manager Carter Hawkins said during an interview with Laurence Holmes and Mark Grote on 670 The Score on Friday afternoon. “You see it in spring training when these guys come up and play in major league games. It’s not like they look out of place. Really what we’re trying to develop in a lot of ways is just the consistency of that greatness. Great is just good consistent over time oftentimes. And Pete has certainly shown that on defense and is continuing to try to develop his approach offensively. He tore the cover off the ball in Myrtle Beach, added some power. He really hasn’t had that much bulk in his professional career just because of some injuries early on in his career, but now that he’s healthy, we’ve been able to see the things that he can do at the plate. We saw it at Myrtle and have continued to see it at South Bend in high-A right now. To your point, you can’t really put a timeline on it (when he’ll be in the big leagues), but he’s certainly moving fast and is a guy everybody organizationally is excited about. And I think with his Futures Game nomination, it’s somebody the industry is definitely taking a look at pretty hard.”
Hawkins also shared a health update on 22-year-old outfielder Brennen Davis, who underwent back surgery in early June. Davis was at the Triple-A level when he was sidelined.
“We’re hoping that we’re going to get him back in some games in August,” Hawkins said. “It’s kind of a unique situation with him, had some odd back issues early on in the season, wasn’t playing quite as well as we hoped.
We couldn’t quite figure out what it was. It turned out to be a non-structural issue on his back. Now, he had to have surgery, which anytime you have any type of surgery, that’s serious. But it was a lot less serious than we initially had feared. So we’re hopeful to get him back in games. He’s already out in Arizona starting some baseball activity. So we’ll get him some games in August and then think about what we can do this offseason, whether it be something like a fall league or winter ball, just to get those at-bats back. But he’s progressing well.”
Davis is the Cubs’ top-rated prospect, according to MLB Pipeline.
Crow-Armstrong is their No. 3 prospect.
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