There has been a ton of roster turnover in Chicago thanks to last Friday’s trade deadline. And because of that very trade deadline, it felt wildly inappropriate to post a new version of the Friday Five last week. Fans were in literal tears watching their three favorite players (Rizzo, Bryant, and Baez) get cast away to other teams, so I figured the last thing people wanted to read was about five dudes that are, well, not the faces of a historic franchise.

Because of that deadline and the MLB Draft that happened about a month ago, the Cubs have had a rather absurd number of new prospects enter their farm system. All things told, 27 dudes are new to the Cubs minor leagues, enough to field an entirely new team, say a short-season league?

All 27 players have been covered in depth in one way or another, whether it’s the piece I wrote at Cubs Insider on the prospects returned in the Rizzo deal, my coverage of the Cubs first round pick Jordan Wicks, my Day Two and Day Three coverage of the draft, our deep dive on the Growing Cubs podcast, or any number of terrific Cubs prospect writers out there.

But this is all about selecting five prospects, as always, and the five guys I roll with this week stand out in ways that make them notable to me. I’m not going to list off the best five prospects acquired over the last month, but rather focus in on some fun and talented players that I just really dig on.

Alexander Canario | OF, South Bend

In a system that has some beautiful swings in Cole Roederer, Owen Caissie, and Ronnier Quintero, Canario might have the prettiest hack from the right side of the plate. The 21-year-old acquired in the Kris Bryant deal has the goods to be a legit starting outfielder in Chicago in a few years.

Canario is said to have a tremendous work ethic and that effort is going to be put to the test as he looks to improve upon his one lagging skill – pitch recognition. The strikeout rate has always hovered around 30% which won’t get the job done, but his prevailing skills of plus power, one hell of an arm, and some underrated speed is what you are looking at with the right fielder.

I’m a big believer in Nelson Velazquez, so this is not a knock on the veteran member of the Cubs system, but I view Canario as a better version of Nelly. He is a really good athlete and was placed on the 40-man roster by a Yankees team that was terrified of losing him in a stash play during last year’s Rule 5 Draft.

Casey Opitz | Catcher, Unassigned

I absolutely loved the Cubs drafting Opitz in the 8th round. He is the best defensive catcher I have ever seen in the college ranks, showing off the ability to gun down runners at ease, block balls in the dirt, and receive the ball extremely well. But most importantly, you are looking at a guy that manages a pitching staff incredibly well. The way his teammates talk about him, you can tell that Opitz gets the absolute best out of his guys on the mound.

His ability to be an extension of the development team on the field makes his selection out of Arkansas valuable in itself. Not all guys are drafted with the intention of making them All-Stars in the big leagues. Opitz will bring a skill set to this system that makes him worth every penny.

But let’s not forget that there is also opportunity for Opitz to carve out a role as a backup catcher in Chicago if he continues to develop his bat. A switch-hitter that puts together good at bats, and did so in the powerhouse SEC, the backstop has potential to be more than just “Captain of the System.”

Anderson Espinoza | RHP, South Bend

I mean, what a story for Espinoza. As a teenager that threw gas and put up numbers, the right-handed pitcher was ranked as the #13 prospect in all of baseball during the 2016 season. After that, he endured two different Tommy John surgeries, a missed season due to the COVID pandemic, and all-in-all, FOUR years without throwing a pitch in a baseball game.

He found his way back to the mound this season, now as a member of the 40-man roster, and was acquired by the Cubs in the Jake Marisnick deal with the Padres. Obviously you are forced to limit your excitement with a guy who has dealt with this much arm trauma, but to land a guy with Espinoza’s pedigree for a defensive replacement/fourth outfielder? I’ll take it every day of the week.

Liam Spence | SS, Unassigned

We haven’t talked a lot about Spence, the 5th round draft pick out of Tennessee and I assume it is because his significant under-slot signing bonus. But just because he was signed under-slot, that doesn’t mean he isn’t someone to get excited about.

Let’s run down what makes Spence fun…

– He led the SEC in OBP (.472)

– He is Australian and accents are cool

– He plays a good defensive shortstop

– He is a JuCo bandit

– He finished fifth in the nation in walks (54 in 65 games)

– His bat-to-ball skills fall in line with that of the new Nico Hoerner, Nick Madrigal, Pete Crow-Armstrong style approach by the front office

Caleb Kilian | RHP, Tennessee

We’ll end here the same place we began, with a guy acquired in the Kris Bryant trade. Kilian is the lone trade piece that has a firm profile as a starting pitcher in the majors and is the best mix of advanced development with high upside.

His four seam/two seam/cutter combination gives him three really good forms of a fastball, with the straight one ramping up to as high as 97 mph, the arm-side run forcing lots of weak contact, and the cutter being plus and generating plenty of whiffs. Kilian’s numbers are off the charts this season as he rocks a 2.11 ERA over 16 starts, compiling 10.2 K/9 and just 1.1 BB/9.

If it weren’t for the crapshoot of an attempt at prospects rankings before this season, I think fans would have been much more pleased to see Kilian come back to the Cubs as the headliner in the KB deal. So for now, he and Canario will just need to prove those fans wrong and show how impressive they truly are.