Cubs promote top prospect Davis to Triple-A Iowa originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
KODAK, Tennessee — Cubs top prospect Brennen Davis is now a heartbeat from the big leagues after earning a promotion from Double-A Tennessee to Triple-A Iowa for the final three weeks of the season following Tennessee’s final home game Sunday.
The MVP of the Futures Game joins the I-Cubs in Omaha Tuesday, a promotion moved up a week because of a domino effect in the organization created by Jason Heyward’s ongoing evaluation since getting struck in the head by Brandon Crawford’s knee sliding into second during Saturday’s game against the Giants.
The Cubs already had planned for Davis, their 2018 second-round pick, to finish at Iowa to get him an additional two weeks of at-bats during the longer Triple-A season.
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“He’s come a long way in the last couple years and put himself on the map,” said Mark Johnson, the manager of Davis’ Double-A Tennessee team a few minutes after informing Davis of the promotion.
Davis, 21, is ranked 14th by MLB Pipeline and 25th by Baseball America in their most recent prospect rankings despite having only 68 professional games before this season because of injuries in 2019 and the pandemic having wiped out the minor league season in 2020.
“He’s put together a really good year here in Double-A,” Johnson said. “I think the numbers are a little deceiving right now, and he’s kind of dropped off a little bit in the last couple weeks, but he’s basically hit .280 all year with some damage.”
After a strong, eight-game start to his season at High-A South Bend and promotion to Tennessee Davis was hitting .280 with a .933 OPS through Aug. 20 at Double-A before going 8-for-55 (.154) with two homers and three walks the last three weeks.
“He can play all three outfield positions, can play center field,” Johnson said. “He has above average speed, above average arm. Overall, he just needs to play a little bit more, get some more at-bat under his belt and more games under his belt.”
Davis was a non-roster invitee to Cubs spring training this year.
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