Chicago Cubs prospect Kevin Alcántara has been crushing the ball at Triple-A to begin the 2026 season, which has fans drooling at the mouth over the potential of the outfielder coming back up to the big leagues. The offense has snapped out of its funk, but the outfield group hasn’t exactly lit up the world at the plate. So, when you see highlights of the top outfield prospect hitting seven home runs in two weeks’ worth of games, you get excited, you want to see the Cubs calling up Alcántara.
Yet, what you probably won’t see is that the 23-year-old hitter is batting .232 with a .317 OBP through 63 plate appearances, and while batting average isn’t exactly the concerning part, Alcántara’s high strikeout rate definitely is. So, although Alcántara has seven home runs, including a multi-homer game on Wednesday, he also leads the Iowa Cubs with 24 strikeouts.
This week is the perfect example of the boom-or-bust nature of Alcántara’s season so far. In two games, he’s 2-for-10, with a pair of home runs and six strikeouts. Among the 225 qualified hitters at Triple-A, Alcántara’s 38.1 K% ranks ninth-highest.
To be clear, this isn’t to discount the success that Alcántara has had so far this year. He’s been a notoriously slow starter throughout his minor league career, and while he obviously has raw power, the right-handed hitter’s high-water mark in home runs has been 17. So, seven home runs in his first 14 games is a big deal.
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But let’s slow down. Alcántara can succeed and continue to develop at Triple-A because he obviously needs to improve his plate discipline.
Kevin Alcántara K% (MiLB Career)
2019: 41 Games, 174 Plate Appearances, 20.7 K% (Rookie Ball)
2021: 34 Games, 138 Plate Appearances, 26.1 K% (Complex League)
2022: 112 Games, 495 Plate Appearances, 24.8 K% (Single-A)
2023: 102 Games, 435 Plate Appearances, 24.1 K% (A+, Double-A)
2024: 111 Games, 473 Plate Appearances, 26.0 K% (Double-A, Triple-A)
2025: 102 Games, 430 Plate Appearances, 29.8 K% (Triple-A)
I do understand how fans can get a little worked up when you hear so much about prospects for multiple years, and the first instinct when guys on the major league roster is to demand a call-up. Alcántara has been on Cubs fans’ radar since 2021, when Anthony Rizzo was traded to the New York Yankees for the teenage prospect. Heading into 2023, Alcántara was on multiple top-100 prospect lists, so there’s no denying he’s been hyped up for a while.
But again, he is only 23-years-old, and while there are guys scattered around the league who are the same age or younger, that’s still relatively young. There is nothing wrong with the Cubs continuing to keep Alcántara at Triple-A, where he can play every day and hopefully make the proper adjustments at the plate.
