Off-season content is already in full swing on the Brick Wall! Like during the regular season, I will be posting a few articles a month for free here on Imaginary Brick Wall with the vast majority of the content over on the Patreon. We are deep into Dynasty Team Report season, while the first Sneak Peek of the 2026 Top 1,000 Dynasty Baseball Rankings hit last week. Deep Positional Rankings are also right around the corner. But first, here is the Chicago Cubs 2026 Dynasty Baseball Team Report (Top 10 Prospects/Interesting MLB guys/Strategy Talk):

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Hitters

Pete Crow-Armstrong – CHC, OF, 24.0 – Can we just enjoy the season Pete Crow had before we start bashing him for this 2nd half and Chase. I feel like the angry 1950’s dad at the dinner table yelling at his kids while the family is crumbling around him. You’re going to sit there and be quiet, enjoy this food, and thank your mother for her hard work. Don’t make me bust out the whooping stick. Pete Crow was almost definitely my biggest hit of 2025 (I’ve been the high guy since he was drafted), ranking him 64th overall, and writing in part, “Pete Crow Armstrong’s power has been underrated from the time he was drafted. And in 2024, especially the 2nd half of 2024, we started to see the first buds of a breakout that could absolutely explode in 2025. For starters, he put up a 88.9/94.0 MPH AVG/FB EV on the season, which shows that power potential I saw 4 years ago wasn’t a mirage. And when it comes with a 17.2 degree launch, an elite 30.0 ft/sec sprint speed, and elite CF defense, you have the makings of an extremely exciting fantasy player. Put some respect on this man’s name. His name is Pete Crow Armstrong, not Pete Crow Armweak.” … and then the true explosion came in 2025 with him upping his Hard Hit% 4.8 points to 41.6%, upping his Max EV 6 MPH to 113.2 MPH, upping his Barrel% 5.6 points to 13%, and upping his bat speed 2.1 MPH to 72.7 MPH. It resulted in 31 homers, and he combines the power explosion with elite speed (29.5 ft/sec sprint with 35 steals) and elite CF defense. This was the insanely fun fantasy player I foresaw, but of course things can never be easy, and Pete Crow had go out and end the season with a massive slump. He put up a .525 OPS in his final 50 games. He definitely got unlucky with a not too bad 25.9% K% and a .222 BABIP, but it for sure more than hints at the risk still present in this profile. And that risk is the way too high 41.7% Chase%. High chase adds a lot of volatility, and that isn’t just high chase, that is full danger zone high chase. If you want to be scared off, that is fair, and I completely get it, but if you’ve read my work at all over the years, you know I’m not running scared. His glove is going to keep him on the field, and even with a low BA, that power/speed combo is going to make a major impact. I’m also betting on the plate approach improving as he matures. Pete Crow has already paid off majorly if you’ve taken my advice over his career, and I’ll be happy to keep buying if people are scared off by the 2nd half. He ranked 21st overall on A Top 25 Sneak Peek of the 2026 Top 1,000 Dynasty Baseball Rankings (Patreon). – 2026 Projection: 86/28/88/.252/.308/.469/33

Matt Shaw – CHC, 3B, 24.5 – Matt Shaw unveils new batting stances like it’s a fashion show. I can’t wait to see what batting stance he’s going to unveil in the next spring collection. The anticipation is killing me. One week it’s your standard upright little man leg kick (this was my favorite one). The next week it’s your dark and brooding, super closed, hunched over, cartoonish leg kick. The next week it’s an open, bending over backwards, bat on his shoulder stance. And then the next week it’s a loose, bat waggling, toe tap swing. I’m not even joking at all. These are all the batting stances Shaw has used over the last 1-2 years, and I might have even missed some versions. It looks different every time you watch him. It’s almost impressive he can change stances this much on the fly and not completely crumble. I think it’s a good sign that he can make the adjustments necessary in the never ending cat and mouse game that is MLB baseball, and those adjustments paid off majorly in his rookie year. After struggling in the first half with a .556 OPS in 63 games, he turned it around post break, slashing .258/.317/.522 with 11 homers, 6 steals and a 23.9/8.3 K%/BB% in his final 63 games of the season. Even with the lackluster season overall (93 wRC+), he did a lot of things well. He can lift and pull with a 13.4 degree launch and 21.8% Air Pull%, he’s got plus speed with a 29 ft/sec sprint, he gets the bat on the ball with a 22.5% whiff%, he can get on base with a 8.7% BB%, and he played a solid 3B. He really only did one thing poorly, but that one thing is a big one, and it’s hit the ball hard. The 84.9 MPH EV and 29.4% Hard Hit% were super weak. They were better in the 2nd half (86.4 MPH EV and 32.4% Hard Hit%), but they still weren’t great, and they were bad in September again. The good news is that his profile can work without huge hard hit numbers (contact, speed, lift and pull), and looking at his minor league career, those numbers are almost certainly going to come way up as he gets more comfortable. He put up a 44.3% Hard Hit% in 24 games at Triple-A in 2025 and an 89.3 MPH EV at AAA in 2024. I’m betting on Shaw hitting the ball much harder in 2026, and if he does, he’s going to be an easy 20/20 guy with a solid BA. Shaw was my guy in the 2023 Draft like PCA was my guy in the 2020 Draft, and just like with PCA, I’m going to stay high through the ups and downs. – 2026 Projection: 78/19/69/.252/.331/.438/23 Prime Projection: 88/23/81/.266/.347/.459/26

Pitchers

Cade Horton – CHC, RHP, 24.7 – Horton was a pretty damn hyped pitching prospect who had an awesome rookie season with a 2.67 ERA in 118 IP, and nobody really seems to care. It’s because we are all looking at the same shit, and that shit is a weak 20.4/6.9 K%/BB% and weak ERA estimators (3.93 xERA, 4.27 xFIP, 4.26 SIERA), but you don’t have to dig all that much deeper to see there are things to be extremely excited about. For one, he was truly lights out post all star break with a 1.03 ERA in 61.1 IP, and the 23.5/6.5 K%/BB% over that time looks much prettier and closer to what we want to see. There is also clearly more strikeout upside in here with 2 whiff machine secondaries in his sweeper (36.8% whiff%) and changeup (47.8% whiff%). Displaying plus control with 2 bat missing secondaries and big velocity (95.7 MPH fastball) is a great foundation to build. The fastball probably got lucky with a .312 wOBA vs. .378 xwOBA, but we know the best pitchers tinker like crazy. He can throw the fastball less in favor of the secondaries, he can go to his lesser used sinker more, he can tinker with the 4-seamer pitch shape, etc … This is just the start to his career, and while I agree the mediocre K/BB can’t shoot him up into the young top of the rotation tier already, he’s in the tier right under that. – 2026 Projection: 11/3.64/1.19/139 in 150 IP

Shota Imanaga – CHC, LHP, 32.7 – Last year in these here Dynasty Team Reports I called Shota Imanaga my biggest miss of 2024, as I evaluated him as more of a solid mid rotation type than a true top of the rotation starter, and after his 2025 season, I feel a lot better about my original evaluation. He put up a 3.73 ERA, 4.21 xERA, and a 20.6/4.6 K%/BB% in 144.2 IP. I questioned how good the low 90’s fastball was going to be vs. MLB hitters, and it got hit up this year with a negative 10 Run Value and .396 xwOBA. The splitter was still really good, but not quite as dominant as 2024. I’m not trying to take back my walk of shame, as you still got the 2024 season if you drafted him, and I was still too low on him even if this is his true talent level. The 0.99 WHIP is elite, the walk rates are elite, and the 2nd half 24.3% K% is right in line with what he did in 2024 (25.1%). He’s not as good as he was in 2024 and he’s not as bad as he was in 2025, and even in 2025, he wasn’t bad at all. He’s a veteran starter with both a safe floor and upside. I would be happy to buy if his price dips too low. – 2026 Projection: 12/3.47/1.06/153 in 165 IP

Bullpen

Daniel Palencia – CHC, Closer, 26.2 – The Cubs could so easily sign a vet to take this job away from Palencia. I don’t think buying expensive bullpen pieces would be their optimal allocation of funds, that would be Kyle Tucker and the rotation, but if they whiff there, and if they have money burning a hole in their pockets, they could definitely pivot to buying an established closer. Palencia is good enough to take on that risk, but he wasn’t so good that I would be willing to pay huge for him before I was certain he was retaining the role. He broke out with a 2.91 ERA and 28.4/7.4 K%/BB% in 52.2 IP, securing the closer job in late May and not looking back with 22 saves. The heavily used 99.6 MPH fastball put up a +5 Run Value and the plus slider put up a 39.4% whiff%. He also has a good splitter that he rarely goes to. A big part of the breakout was due to improved control, and related to that, he doesn’t have a long track record of success even in the minors. Relievers pop up like this all the time, but along with risk he loses the job this off-season, there is still some regression risk here too. And he missed time with a shoulder strain towards the end of the season, which he returned from, but it is another risk to take into account. I like him a lot, but some caution is warranted until we see more of the off-season play out. – 2026 Projection: 4/3.46/1.19/69/28 saves in 60 IP

Chicago Cubs 2026 Top 10 Dynasty Fantasy Baseball Prospects Rankings

1) Owen Caissie – CHC, OF, 23.9 – The toughest part of Caissie’s evaluation is figuring out his path to playing time. It doesn’t seem like Chicago is going to leave a spot open for him in 2026, but with Happ and Suzuki free agents after the 2026 season, I don’t see why he wouldn’t get a real shot in 2027 and beyond. Chicago has the money to keep signing vets to block him, and he’ll have competition in house too to win a long term job, so nothing is guaranteed. And the thing that can really stop him from being given that full time job with a long leash is that the hit tool is a major concern. It immediately got exposed in the majors with a 40.7% K% and 39.7% whiff% in 27 PA, and while it was in a super small sample and with sporadic playing time, it’s still not exactly great to see. His strikeout rates have been very high in the minors too with K rates in the high 20’s his entire career. We’ve seen hit tool risk sluggers like him need a long leash to reach their ultimate power hitting beast destiny, and not every team is will to give them that long leash. His power upside is worth that risk though with 22 homers, a 92.1 MPH EV, and a 53.4% Hard Hit% in 99 games at Triple-A. The 74.8 MPH swing was great to see in his debut. The dude is going to mash if given the chance, the only question is when he’s going to get that chance, and how long of a hit tool adjustment period there is going to be. – 2026 Projection: 26/10/33/.229/.304/.430/3 Prime Projection: 79/28/89/.248/.335/.473/7

2) Ethan Conrad – CHC, OF, 21.9 – If there is one guy in this FYPD class that really makes me tingle. The guy who I would hate to leave the draft without. The guy I want to say is my guy, it’s Ethan Conrad (Kilby is a close 2nd). He can so easily become the best fantasy player in this draft, and that isn’t even close to a stretch. He’s 6’3”, 220 pounds, and I’m in love with his lefty swing. It’s loose, athletic, upright, and then he absolutely unfurls on the baseball like a big cat striking it’s prey. He was in the midst of a junior year power explosion with 7 homers in 21 games in the ACC before hurting shoulder diving for a ball which required surgery to repair. But you know I’ve been loving the shoulder surgery discount with so many hitters coming back completely fine, and obviously the Cubs thought the same thing stealing him at 17th overall in the Draft. Not only is the power no joke, but he’s fast and he loves to run with 77 steals in 88 attempts in 200 amateur games. He’s also hit extremely well everywhere he’s been since his freshman year. He had a .813 OPS in 200 PA his freshman year in the MAAC, he topped that his sophomore year in the MAC with a 1.171 OPS in 259 PA, he then went to the Cape and put up a .920 OPS in 120 PA, and then he transferred into the ACC and dropped a 1.238 OPS in 21 games. He’s literally never not hit, and his contact rates have always been pretty damn good too with a 14.4% K% this year, a 15% K% in the Cape and a 12.4% K% his sophomore year in the MAAC. He’s had some chase issues throughout this career, he’s yet to really face super tough competition as he was just getting into the meat of his ACC schedule before getting hurt, and I guess there is some risk coming off the shoulder surgery, but all of that just looks like it opens up a giant buying opportunity to me. Conrad is the guy I’m really targeting in this draft. He ranked 4th overall in the End of Season Top 60 2026 First Year Player Draft Rankings (Patreon). – ETA: 2027 Prime Projection: 83/24/88/.262/.324/.461/21

3) Jaxon Wiggins – CHC, RHP, 24.6 – A pitching prospect like Wiggins is why you don’t have to pay up for the already extremely expensive, universally highly ranked elite pitching prospects, and also why you don’t have to dip into the hyped teenage lottery ticket bucket of pitching prospects. Every year there are quite a few truly beastly, huge stuff, huge upside, huge K rate pitching prospects who are in the upper minors and who don’t get all that much hype where you are going to have to pay up majorly for them in an off-season prospect draft. And if a few of them go earlier than you think, there are plenty more to choose from. I talked about this “flaw” in prospect rankings in an earlier team report, and Wiggins highlights this perfectly. He’s 6’6” with a double plus upper 90’s fastball that has good shape and misses a ton of bats. He combines the heat with a plus, bat missing slider, and the lesser used changeup is a really good pitch too when he goes to it. It resulted in a 2.19 ERA with a 31.0/11.5 K%/BB% in 78 IP at mostly Double-A. Sure there is risk, which we will get to, but every pitching prospect has risk. I would much rather take the inherent risk of a pitching prospect later in the draft than passing up elite hitting prospects for an already hyped to death pitching prospect earlier in the draft. The risk is that he has below average control, he needs to keep working on the changeup, and there is injury risk too, as 78 IP is his career high (he missed time with a shoulder injury this year). But he’s the type to get the redraft guys in a tizzy when they finally discover who he is in spring training, and ponder why this guy didn’t get more prospect hype. Wiggins is one of the top pitching prospect targets this off-season. – 2026 Projection: 4/3.89/1.31/83 in 80 IP Prime Projection: 12/3.55/1.22/170 in 150 IP

4) Moises Ballesteros – CHC, C, 22.5 – Ballesteros had the type of MLB debut that I love to see, just immediately proving the profile will transfer, slashing .298/.394/.474 with 2 homers, an 89.1 MPH EV, a .342 xwOBA, and a 18.2/13.6 K%/BB% in 20 games. The dude has been a precocious hitter since stepping on a pro field in the DSL in 2017, and he’s just kept on hitting every single year and at every higher level, now including the majors. This is a bat you want to bet on, regardless of the warts, but there are some concerning warts. Most notably, he’s not a good defensive catcher, putting his ultimate defensive home in question, and putting major pressure on the bat. He doesn’t lift and pull with a 0.9 degree launch and 4.4% Air Pull% in the majors (9 degree launch and 9.6% Air Pull% at AAA). He’s super slow with a bottom 17% of the league sprint. And he was bad vs lefties at AAA with a .577 OPS. If he ends up a short side of a platoon DH that doesn’t hit a ton of homers, that is super weak for fantasy. But if he plays in 120+ games with catcher eligibility and an Alejandro Kirk like offensive profile, that ain’t bad at all. I’m actually getting more discouraged by him as I’m writing this blurb and listing out his negatives but all this guy has even done is hit, so I can’t fade him too much. – 2026 Projection: 31/8/36/.269/.310/.403/1 Prime Projection: 66/18/79/.283/.334/.435/3

5) Jefferson Rojas – CHC, SS/2B, 20.11 – I always put Rojas in the better real life than fantasy prospect bucket, and that is still the bucket I have him in. He has a good middle infield glove and he has a good feel to hit, which is as safe as a real life prospect gets, but he doesn’t have the tools to get me excited for fantasy with an average power/speed combo. To his credit, he bounced back in a major way coming off a down 2024, slashing .278/.379/.492 with 11 homers, 14 steals, and a 15.7/12.7 K%/BB% in 67 games at High-A, but he fell off a cliff when he got to Double-A with a 54 wRC+ in 39 games. He was only 20 years old, so the High-A numbers mean more to me, but I do think it hints at the subdued upside as he starts facing better competition. Solid prospect, but not a high upside fantasy prospect. – ETA: 2027 Prime Projection: 81/17/66/.271/.334/.419/19

6) Kevin Alcantara – CHC, OF, 23.8 – Alcantara has been such an intriguing fantasy prospect for several years now with raw upside to dream on at a projectable 6’6” with hard hit ability and plus speed, but he still hasn’t put it together. He had a decent year at Triple-A with a 109 wRC+ in 102 games, but it came with a 30.5% whiff% and 29.8% K%, he stole only 10 bags, and he didn’t lift and pull with a 9 degree launch and 12.7% Air Pull%. The 90.4 MPH EV and 45% Hard Hit% are good, but they aren’t so good where you can just ignore everything else. He’s simply still too raw. And he’s blocked in Chicago. He seems like the exact type to take a shot on when he’s like 27 years old on his 2nd team and starting to refine his hit tool enough to let his other tools shine. He’s got a good CF glove, so the glove should help him get on the field when the bat does potentially get refined enough. But in the near term, it’s hard to really keep targeting him. A trade would do wonders for his fantasy value. – 2026 Projection: 18/4/23/.227/.289/.378/2 Prime Projection: 67/20/74/.246/.318/.427/18

7) Jonathon Long – CHI, 1B, 24.2 – I really like Long’s bat. I’ve actually really liked Long’s bat since I called him a deep league sleeper as a 9th round pick in his 2023 Draft year, but unfortunately, when you are a 1B only prospect, really liking a prospects bat isn’t enough. You have to think it’s going to be one of the better bats in MLB to bet on them securing a full time job, and I can’t say that about Long. The biggest issue for me is that he didn’t lift and pull a ton at AAA with a 10 degree launch and 10.5% Air Pull%. He still hit 20 homers in 140 games, and he hits the ball really hard with a 90.9 MPH EV and 47.1% Hard Hit%, but if we need to bet on his bat exploding so hard and quickly in the majors to win a 1B/DH job, I would optimally want to see more lift and pull. The plate skills are strong with a 19.1/13.0 K%/BB%, so he’s not just a home run or nothing guy, but again, at 1B, a solid above average bat with good but not great homer totals just might not be enough. Especially in Chicago where Michael Busch is locked at 1B and they have plenty of other DH options both short and long term. If he were on another team, I could see ranking him higher, but until he’s on that other team, this is as high as I can go. – 2026 Projection: 14/3/15/.247/.308/.407/0 Prime Projection: 74/22/79/.265/.330/.453/2

8) Kane Kepley – CHC, OF, 22.2 – Selected 56th overall in the 2025 MLB Draft, Kepley had one of the best pro debuts in the class, and you know I love me a good pro debut. He slashed .299/.481/.433 with 2 homers, 16 steals, and a 11.5/19.1 K%/BB% in 28 games at Single-A. It’s the same thing he did after transferring into the ACC his junior year with a 7.1/14.2 K%/BB%, 3 homers, and 45 steals in 61 games. The plate skills are excellent, he’s a great base stealer with plus speed, and most importantly for this type of profile, he has a good CF glove. A guy with a good glove in CF, excellent contact rates/approach, and speed is going to make an impact in both real life and fantasy if he gets on the field. He’s not a big guy at 5’8”, 180 pounds, and he’s doesn’t much raw power, so the risk is that he tops out as a 4th outfielder. – ETA: 2027 Prime Projection: 76/10/53/.271/.332/.378/28

9) Josiah Hartshorn – CHC, OF, 19.2 – Hartshorn was selected 181st overall in the 2025 MLB Draft, but his $2 million signing bonus shows you the type of talent he has. He’s an already built up 6’2”, 220 pounds with easy plus raw power potential and a good approach at the plate. He’s a switch hitter, but injuries (elbow and back) have prevented him from actually hitting from both sides at the same time very often, sometimes only hitting righty and sometimes only hitting lefty, so there is a definitely a rawness there that you can either look at as a good thing (plenty of room for refinement) or a bad thing (risk). He’s a solid athlete but he’s not a burner and he looks a bit lumbering out there on the bases, so I don’t think steals are going to be a major part of his game. You are betting on the size, power and approach here, but plenty more refinement is needed. There is a reason he slipped so far in the draft despite the high signing bonus. – ETA: 2029 Prime Projection: 72/23/78/.258/.327/.441/8

10) Cristian Hernandez – CHC, SS, 22.3 – The big talent that made Hernandez the top international signing in his class is still here at an uber athletic 6’2” with an electric swing, raw power, and plus speed, but his pro career has been a struggle. Credit to him for righting the ship after it bottomed out in 2022 and 2023, but it just feels like so much work has gone into him just being a mediocre bat in the lower minors. He was a 21 year old at High-A and he put up a 97 wRC+ with a .252/.329/.365 triple slash. Granted, we saw a lot of 21 year old college bats step into the lower minors and put up some mediocre lines too, so maybe I’m being harsh, but that might say more about the 2025 college class than it does about Hernandez. The good news is that the 20.7/10.5 K%/BB% is solid, the SS glove is solid, and the fantasy upside is in here with 52 steals. The power upside is there too, but he hit only 7 homers with a 47.1% GB% in 115 games, so he doesn’t seem that close to tapping into it. He’s a mid 20’s breakout candidate at best, and it’s possible he drops like a stone once he starts seeing advanced pitching in the upper minors. – ETA: 2028 Prime Projection: 67/14/61/.243/.312/.413/22

Just Missed

11) James Triantos – CHC, 2B, 23.2

12) Pedro Ramirez – CHC, 2B/3B, 22.0

13) Juan Cabada – CHC, 2B/3B, 17.11

Dynasty Baseball Thought/Strategy of the Day (which may or may not be related to the team I’m covering that day)

Way, way back in October of last year, I went where no man had gone before, deep into the bat speed leaderboards to see if we could glean any sleepers from them, and it was immediately obvious that there was a treasure trove of value to be pulled from there. Seriously, bat speed was not really being talked about or used that much (or nearly at all if my memory serves me right) as it was relatively new to Statcast. As the off-season went along, people jumped on the bat speed bandwagon, and at this point it is very obvious that bat speed is a tremendously valuable tool to use in your player evaluation. I had a ton of target hits using bat speed like Tyler Soderstrom, Jo Adell, Junior Caminero (less a target and more just staying super high on him), Spencer Torkelson, and Addison Barger. Hunter Goodman I didn’t call a target because I was worried about his glove, but I did name him as a bat speed standout and worth going after for that alone. There were misses too like Oneil Cruz and Jordan Walker, but I’m less interested in focusing on the guys with huge bat speed this off-season, and more interested in how many guys were able to improve their bat speed year to year. I closed out my thoughts on bat speed last year by writing, “Guys who “swing for the fences” are going to swing faster, hit for more power, and strikeout more. Guys who swing slower are going to make more contact, but not hit for as much power. So I don’t think bat speed is necessarily a completely sticky thing if a player decides to change his approach to hit for more power or contact. We’ll have to keep an eye on this in future years as we continue to build on this data to see how often that happens exactly, and how often it’s successful. Really cool to have this data at our fingertips now.”

And as we saw with PCA, bat speed can definitely be improved very quickly, and it can result in the power explosion we want. Meaning, we shouldn’t just automatically cap a player’s power upside if they come up and don’t immediately swing a fast bat. PCA improved his bat speed by 2.1 MPH and went from 10 homers to 31 homers. Brice Turang was the #1 bat speed riser in baseball, raising it 4.5 MPH, and he went from 7 homers to 18 homers. Anthony Volpe was the 2nd biggest riser at 3.3 MPH, and while he didn’t have a great year, he did go from 12 homers to 19 homers. Sal Frelick raised it 1.9 MPH, going from 2 homers to 12 homers. Geraldo Perdomo raised it 1.4 MPH, going from a career high of 6 homer to 20 homers. Maikel Garcia raised it 1.1 MPH, going from 7 homers to 16 homers. There are more power breakouts up and down the bat speed risers list. While you can’t solely contribute bat speed to all of the power breakouts, it is clearly a major reason. And the takeaway for me here is what I suspected last off-season, which is that guys can improve their bat speed considerably year to year. It’s why I’m not panicked over Matt Shaw’s below average 69.6 MPH swing. My bet is that rises in 2025, just like it did with PCA this year. So while bat speed is certainly a major tool to use, I would caution about putting too much emphasis on it, especially for younger players who are still getting comfortable vs. MLB pitching. It is not a power death sentence to swing a slower bat, as the skill can very obviously be improved, and be improved in a major way year to year.

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