Tuesday, June 30

Welcome back to the Cubs Beat newsletter. Jordan Bastian has covered baseball for MLB.com since 2005, including the Cubs since the 2019 season.

CHICAGO -- Josiah Hartshorn only appeared in four Cactus League games with the Cubs during Spring Training, but manager Craig Counsell saw enough to come away impressed with the outfield prospect. There was a polished approach within the plate appearances that usually takes young players time to develop.

“His last at-bat was in high school. And then his next at-bat is in a big league Spring Training game,” Counsell said. “He just handled himself really well. The at-bats were better than most of the other kids that had been in pro ball. You could just feel that. It was pretty clear: ‘That’s a gifted hitter.’”

Since Hartshorn’s first impression in the preseason, he has continued to open eyes and generate buzz in Chicago’s system.

The 19-year-old Hartshorn has cracked Pipeline’s Top 100 list (No. 99) and should continue to climb the rankings. Currently ranked No. 4 among Cubs prospects, he tore through Single-A pitching with Myrtle Beach before earning a promotion to High-A South Bend by late May. Hartshorn has kept his foot on the gas since moving up a level, too.

“What he’s doing is remarkable right now,” Counsell said. “That’s more than I would have ever told you.”

“It’s fun to watch, honestly, on a nightly basis,” Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said earlier this month. “When you have a prospect really break out and do this, it’s fun for the whole organization. The scouting department feels great. Player development feels good.”

Hartshorn hit .273/.424/.460 with five homers, nine doubles, 25 RBIs and more walks (34) than strikeouts (27) in 39 games with Myrtle Beach before getting promoted. Once up with South Bend -- where he is more than three years younger than the average position player -- the switch-hitting outfielder rattled off seven hits in his first five games.

In his first 18 games at High-A, Hartshorn belted eight home runs. That included five in a seven-game stretch from June 6-14, during which he also collected 14 RBIs. Heading into Sunday’s action, Hartshorn was batting .327 with 15 extra-base hits and 35 RBIs through 29 games with South Bend.

“It’s a real switch-hitter who controls the zone and has power,” Hoyer said. “Finding a guy that can really hit from both sides is really hard. I feel like so many switch-hitters are kind of small middle infielders. That’s kind of the profile. To have a guy who controls the zone from both sides, who hits for power from both sides, that was what really turned us on to him. Our scouting department did a great job on him.”

The Cubs selected Hartshorn in the sixth round of the 2025 Draft out of Orange Lutheran High School in California and gave him a $2 million signing bonus that was a record for that round. It is the type of bonus typically seen early in the second round. It was an aggressive deal to sway Hartshorn away from his Texas A&M commitment.

Hoyer praised the Cubs’ scouting arm -- led by vice president of scouting Dan Kantrovitz -- for targeting Hartshorn and landing the prospect.

“So many guys have been a part of the process. So I think it’s really gratifying for everybody,” Hoyer said. “Dan did a really good job with him. 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.

“And Hartshorn was kind of always the focal point of that. That wasn’t a situation where, ‘Hey, we had money leftover in the sixth round, let’s use it.’ It was, ‘That was the guy we targeted.’ Dan deserves a lot of credit.”

Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong is closing in on having at least 10 homers, 20 RBIs and 40 hits in the month of June. Who was the last Cubs batter to hit those benchmarks in a single month?

A. Kris Bryant

B. Ryne Sandberg

C. Nick Castellanos

D. Sammy Sosa

Cubs pitching prospect Jaxon Wiggins (No. 3 in the Cubs’ system and No. 83 on Pipeline’s Top 100 list) has made three rehab starts since returning to game action following a bout with right elbow inflammation. Most recently, the 24-year-old Wiggins worked 3 2/3 shutout innings on Saturday for High-A South Bend.

Wiggins entered this season on the Major League radar, but landed on the Minor League injured list after only two outings with Triple-A Iowa. While the righty should be back with Iowa soon, he is not in the immediate picture for Chicago, even as rotation injuries have mounted.

“I don’t think he’s a factor right now,” Counsell said. “I think from a health perspective, he’s not ready to go, in terms of getting to his top level. He’s missed too much of the season and hasn’t pitched enough. Certainly, he’s a factor for the rest of the season. But the next couple weeks? No, not a factor.”

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• Here’s the MLB playoff picture at the season’s midpoint. Read more >>

“It’s certainly unique with just so many guys going down. Obviously, you feel for all those guys. They all want to be out there. They all want to help. I think the offense has done a great job over the last week just putting up a ton of runs. We’re confident in the guys that we have in the bullpen and in the starting rotation, that they're going to show up and pitch big innings for us. That’s kind of the mentality of the group.” -- Happ, on the pile of injuries impacting the pitching staff

C. Nick Castellanos

Do you remember the heater Castellanos was on in the batter’s box after being acquired by the Cubs in 2019? That August, the outfielder had 11 homers, 20 RBIs and 40 hits while hitting at a .348 clip with a 1.098 OPS. The last Cubs hitter to have a 10-20-40 showing in June was Sandberg in 1990 (14-25-43).

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