Although the Chicago Cubs don’t have any top-100 ranked prospects they certainly have several young players having pretty good seasons down in the minors this year. That includes one of the newest members of the Cubs organization, Nico Hoerner, who cranked his first career home run in pro ball Saturday night.
Hoerner was the 24th overall pick in the 2018 MLB Draft and the shortstop out of Stanford is off to a hot start with the Eugene Emeralds, the Class A short-season affiliate of the Cubs.
The right-handed hitter was 6-for-12 in his first four games with Eugene heading into Saturday’s game against the Hillsboro Hops and in the sixth inning Hoerner lined an opposite-field shot for his first home run in professional baseball.
Hoerner gets the Emeralds on the board in the 6th with his first career homerun! pic.twitter.com/74kgVmMhs9
— Eugene Emeralds (@EugeneEmeralds) July 8, 2018
After five games, Hoerner is 7-for-16 (.438 average) with a triple, four runs scored, two RBIs, four stolen bases and three walks to go along with his first home run.
Before he made the trip to the northwest, Hoerner played in three games in the Arizona League and he showed off his skills in a short period of time as well. In his pro debut, Hoerner reached base four times, scored three times, drove in a run and also tripled.
Although the Cubs are currently set in the middle infield with Javier Baez and Addison Russell, Hoerner has his sights on reaching the big leagues at shortstop.
One thing Hoerner can answer without hesitation is about his position going forward: shortstop.
“Yes,” he said quickly about staying at his natural position. “That’s an easy answer. You can be dead-set on a position but also realistic. But I want to play shortstop for as long as I can.”
So far so good for Hoerner, who signed his contract with the Cubs in June that included a $2.7 million bonus.
