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How Dodgers new prospects from Cubs trade fit into team’s long-term picture

By Katrina Stebbins |
Jun 20, 2023; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Draft prospect Zyhir Hope during a high school baseball game at the
Jun 20, 2023; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Draft prospect Zyhir Hope during a high school baseball game at the / Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
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Thursday's trade between the Dodgers and Cubs, amidst all the chaos of arbitration deadline day, sent reliever Yency Almonte and former first-round draft pick Michael Busch to Chicago and brought prospects Jackson Ferris and Zyhir Hope to Los Angeles.

Busch, the No. 2 prospect in the Dodgers' organization in 2023, had a rough go of things in his first appearances in the big leagues last year, but he still has a high ceiling and will have more room to grow with the Cubs, where he'll presumably get more playing time with than he was going to in LA, with all of the veterans and superstars in the Dodgers' lineup elbowing him out.

This trade was largely an effort to clear roster space necessary to make the Teoscar Hernández signing official while also leaving one spot open for another starting pitcher. The Dodgers can still do some shuffling if they want more bullpen arms as well, but for now, if a free agent signing is in the cards, they're able to accommodate him. However, Ferris and Hope shouldn't be sold short. Despite a disappointing early showing, the Dodgers had a lot of hope for Busch, and they wouldn't have given him away for bottom-barrel prospects.

How Dodgers new prospects from Cubs trade fit into team’s long-term picture

Some interesting analyses of Ferris' pitching arsenal and Hope's swing mechanics have already started to crop up around social media, indicating that these two players may not be ones to sleep on. They're both very young (Ferris is 19 and Hope is 18), so we're not going to see them in the major leagues for a while. However, as one of them has already taken his place in the top five of the Dodgers' prospect pipeline, they'll be ones to watch out for as their careers progress.

Pitcher Jackson Ferris joins Dodgers as their fifth-ranked prospect on MLB Pipeline

Before he left the Cubs, Ferris was their No. 8 prospect after being drafted in the second round of the of the 2022 Draft and performing well in Low-A. He pitched 56 innings for a 3.38 ERA with a three-pitch arsenal (fastball, changeup, curve). MLB Pipeline evaluated his 92-95 MPH fastball as his strongest pitch, but described all three as plus.

The rub with Ferris seems to be with his walk rate, a pretty brutal 5.3 BB/9, but his sample size is still small and it's undoubtedly been flagged as an area for improve for him as he works his way through the minors.

Ferris lands at No. 5 with the Dodgers, behind two pitchers with currently on the major league roster in Nick Frasso (No. 3) and Gavin Stone (No. 4). Ferris is also only one of five left-handed pitchers in the Dodgers' top 30, and the only one in their top 10. Although he still has some years to go before he's major league ready, he's an exciting development for a team that clearly does well with high-end pitching talent they can develop from an early age.

Want to feel even better about the deal? Look at the way Cubs fans feel about it. That's typically a solid indicator.

Outfielder Zyhir Hope may be a dark horse acquisition for the Dodgers

Ferris' potential is immediately apparent, and he's been ranked by MLB Pipeline since he started throwing in Low-A, so the least-known name in the trade is Hope's, who is yet to crack the rankings. He was an 11th-round draft pick out of high school who absolutely mashed his way through Rookie ball, which has raised a lot of eyebrows among Dodgers fans. In only 11 games in 2023, he hit .286/.419/.543, with three home runs, nine RBI, and three stolen bases on top. Not only that, he was two-way player in high school but was drafted as a hitter, so the Dodgers could choose to transition him back to pitching.

Joe Tourville, affiliated with a hitting coaching service called Blast Baseball, put together an interesting thread about Hope's power and mechanics with a bat prior to the draft last year. The thread contains a lot of numbers and physics, but the gist of things is that Hope's bat speed is exceptional, and he has a very repeatable swing.

All in all, this Dodgers/Cubs trade will be good for everyone involved. Busch will get more playing time in Chicago and get more chances to live up to the hype of being a first-round draft pick and top-two prospect, while the Dodgers get a freed-up space on their roster and two very promising young players still in the earliest stages of their career, who they'll be able to develop and watch closely as time goes on.

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