Prospect News: Edward Becomes A Cubrera or Is Matt Shawt?

I’m looking at fresh powder for the first time since beginning the organizational top ten prospect reports, and I probably need to re-read all 30 before I start to reorder the top 100 and first-year-player-draft rankings. 

One guy who figures to move up is Cubs C Moises Ballesteros. If you read Grey’s 2026 Fantasy Outlook for Ballesteros, you might remember I was skeptical that he’d actually be part of the team’s 2026 regular lineup after they ignored him in the playoffs. 

We both were. Some words from Grey: “I’m not going to defend the Cubs, and defending them in this circumstance would be them doing the right thing and playing Moises five days a week at DH and once or twice at catcher. It’s kinda impossible to say right now. If the Cubs sign one decent hitter this year, it’s gonna be Moises’s playing time they take, no matter who it is or where they play, because they have nowhere to play anyone else and Moises.”

Wait, should I really be moving him up the lists? I mean they did sign a guy who has to play every day in 3B Alex Bregman, bumping 3B Matt Shaw to the bench or (sigh) to the designated hitter spot. My hope is that they plan to trade Shaw and play Ballesteros. If not, they’d stack four righties in Carson Kelly, Nico Hoerner, Dansby Swanson and Shaw at the bottom of the lineup. 

The trouble with selling Shaw now is that his value might be at its nadir. He looked lost throughout the first half of his rookie year and wound up slashing .226/.295/.394 with 13 home runs, 17 stolen bases and a 21.5 percent strikeout rate. He saved a disastrous season with a strong final two months, slashing .257/.317/.525 with 11 home runs over his final 202 plate appearances from July 19 through season’s end, good for a 131 wRC+ or 31 percent better than league average over that stretch. 

Oh farts, am I backing up on Ballesteros again? 

When OF Owen Caissie was traded (along with SS Cristian Hernandez and 1B Edgardo De Leon) for RHP Edward Cabrera, I was ready to hammer the gas pedal. That’s still the move with Caissie, who goes from being an extra bat to having an inside lane to the middle of Miami’s lineup, but the Alex Bregman signing does throw a wrench or two at the Ballesteros buyers. News out of Chicago suggests they’ll hold both Shaw and Hoerner for now, so it’s still fair to fear they’ll install Shaw at designated hitter and let Ballesteros almost every day in Triple-A. The meta piece of this involves teammates and coaches being upset that Shaw left the team during the pennant race to attend a political rally slash memorial service for somebody he hardly knew. If that’s a major motivating factor here, which they’d certainly never say out loud until it’s in the past if ever, then maybe he’ll just be benched more days than not. Let him watch a while. 

One player whose outlook gets a clear boost is Marlins LHP Robby Snelling. In 11 Triple-A starts, he recorded a 1.27 ERA and 0.99 WHIP with 81 strikeouts and 17 walks in 63.2 innings. Miami has Ryan Weathers, Max Meyer and Braxton Garrett penciled into rotation spots three through five, and while they’re all talented pitchers, they’re also pretty big health risks. You could even bump the team’s number one prospect, LHP Thomas White, into consideration for deep redraft leagues. If Miami is competitive, White could contribute before the All-Star break. More likely, he’s a September call-up, but he’s firmly on the redraft radar now. Both guys could quickly become fantasy mainstays if they got a chance. 

It’s crazy to line up all the pitchers Miami has traded away: Zac Gallen, Pablo Lopez, Jesus Luzardo, Trevor Rogers, Edward Cabrera and Tanner Scott if you want to include relievers. That’s a solid staff right there. If they can start getting these pitching-for-hitting deals right, they might turn a corner. Trouble is, you could say they got the Gallen, Lopez and Rogers trades right enough already and haven’t made any hay from that, so who knows. Just keep swimming, I suppose. 

LATE-NIGHT UPDATE: You can add Weathers to that list. He’s been shipped to the Yankees for four prospects of questionable upside. More on that in upcoming articles, but for now, wow: Snelling is a rotation lock, right? I couldn’t even get the article out before his stock jumped again.

SS Cristian Hernandez signed for $3 million in 2021 but hasn’t added much strength and has slowly progressed through the system. He posted a 99 wRC+ in 115 High-A games in 2025. 1B Edgardo De Leon hits the ball hard but strikes out too much: 28.8 percent in 43 complex league games alongside a .500 slugging percentage and five home runs in 43 games. The hope is probably that he can play corner outfield because if not, it’s kind of odd to target a six-foot, right-handed first baseman in this kind of deal. 

Arizona traded RHP Jack Martinez for 3B Nolan Arenado today, which creates even more doubt around Jordan Lawlar. St. Louis will cover $31 million of Arenado’s remaining $42 million over the next two years, so he’s not a super costly addition. Perhaps he can bounce back in a warmer climate. For his part, Lawlar has reportedly been practicing in the outfield this off-season. Good foresight because that’s his path for now. Roster Resource has Blaze Alexander in left, Alek Thomas in center and Adrian Del Castillo at designated hitter. If I were running that organization, I’d set any one of those guys aside to get Lawlar into the everyday lineup. Then again, I’d set Arenado aside just as fast. Long story short, I’m still in on Lawlar, especially as his perceived value just can’t stop dropping. For what it’s Werth, Martinez will turn 23 in March. He allowed a 5.47 ERA with 110 strikeouts in 77.1 innings for Arizona State in 2025. At 6’4” 215 pounds, he throws hard but has a long way to go before he can generate regular outs as a professional. 

Cardinals IF JJ Wetherholt should jump a few rounds in his average draft position this week. I don’t think Wetherholt has played much third base, but 2B Brendan Donovan’s played a little over there, and most indications suggest he’ll be next to go, opening third to Gorman and second to Thomas Saggese. Those are both intriguing players with long track records of hitting, but Wetherholt is a franchise-keystone type guy. I doubt either would hold him off for long when he looks ready.

I was a little bummed by the Arenado move because I had dreamed an impossible dream that Chicago might be able to flip Hoerner and Shaw and perhaps another piece to Arizona for 2B Ketel Marte. That dream died fast. This ain’t a vidja game. 

Thanks for reading!