Under Jed Hoyer, the Chicago Cubs have done a great job of building their pipeline.
That largely came from the organization becoming sellers and waiving the white flag when it was clear they wouldn’t make the playoffs.
This has gotten the Cubs to the point where they currently are, having multiple top prospects throughout their farm system with many of them knocking on the door to become a featured part of the Major League roster.
With that in mind, it’s hard to be too upset about the underwhelming 2025 international free agency class Chicago secured.
The Cubs have yet to officially announced their signings, but Baseball America has their haul at seven players with none of them being in the top 50 per MLB Pipeline.
-Wilfry De La Cruz, SS, Dominican Republic
-Juan Cabada, SS, Dominican Republic
-Juan Tomas, SS, Dominican Republic
-Tadeo Gamez, RHP, Mexico
-Elerick Gomez, SS, Venezuela
-Julio Acosta, OF, Dominican Republic
-Luis Santos, SS, Dominican Republic
As can be seen, the majority of the players are from the Dominican Republic, and they really prioritized adding infielders during this cycle.
More names can be added since Jan. 15 was just the first day that international players in this class could officially be signed, but these deals are largely agreed to years in advance, so the likelihood that this number significantly increases is low.
Of course, Chicago was hoping they would land Roki Sasaki.
The Japanese phenom was a late add to this cycle when it was announced he was going to be officially posted, and much of the attention for multiple teams around the league was placed on adding him.
There is still plenty to get excited about for the Cubs in this class, though.
Ben Badler of Baseball America took a look at the top signings for each team across the board, and for Chicago, the duo of Wilfry De La Cruz and Juan Cabada made up the most of their bonus pool funds with them getting $2.3 million and $1.5 million respectively.
De La Cruz is an intriguing switch-hitter who Badler thinks can become a power-hitter as he progresses throughout his career. Cadada is also a quality bat who doesn’t have pure home run potential, but has a good contact rate and plate discipline.
Juan Thomas is the player who Badler says has the most upside.
“There’s potential for a power/speed threat with Tomas’ ability to drive the ball with impact now and much bigger power to come with physical maturity,” he writes as part of his scouting report.
So, while the Cubs didn’t bring in a ton of international players in this class, they identified an area they wanted to address and signed some players who have the potential to become top prospects if they can reach their ceilings.
