The Cubs are sending 7 prospects to the Arizona Fall League which begins on October 4th. The players that will be sent will be (RHP) Andrew Cashner, Chris Carpenter(RHP), Brett Jackson(OF), (RHP) Trey McNutt, Junior Lake(IF), DJ LeMehieu(IF) and Jeff Beliveau(LHP).
It looks like the Chicago Cubs will be going young. When you send players to the AFL, this is a test to see if they are ready for the majors. Most of the players that have played in this league have come up to the big leagues the next season.
Cashner, Carpenter and LeMehieu have already spent time in the majors; Cashner is there basically to continue rehab to recover from an injury. However, the Cubs have chosen to send 3 pitchers in addition to Cashner shows that they understand they need some pitching in the rotation.
An intriguing guy on the list is Junior Lake . He had an awesome season at high A Daytona, and moved up to AA Tennessee and struggled a bit, but came on strong at the end. He does not take a lot of walks, has good power, makes a lot of errors, but has a lot of speed. As you can see he has a lot of good and bad. He could play second base, third base or shortstop. It will be interesting to see if he performs well in the AFL, what the Cubs will do with him.
Trey McNutt and Carpenter have great chances to be with the Cubs next year in some capacity. There are openings in the bullpen and in the rotation and both could give themselves a huge chance by performing well as the Cubs will have a new GM by then and they will be able to make a great first impression.
The culture change is coming to Wrigley, several prospects at a time.