Road to The Show™: Cubs’ Caissie

Each week, MiLB.com profiles an elite prospect by chronicling the steps he's taken toward achieving his Major League dream. Here's a look at third-ranked Cubs prospect Owen Caissie. For more stories about players on The Road to The Show, click here.

There’s not much more that the prospect experience has to offer Owen Caissie.

This weekend, Caissie is set to represent the National League in the All-Star Futures Game at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. Should the Cubs’ No. 3 prospect appear in the showcase, he’ll be adding to a biography that includes getting traded just months after being drafted, winning consecutive Minor League championships and participating in the Cactus League, Arizona Fall League and World Baseball Classic.

MLB Pipeline’s No. 34 overall prospect has spent the entire 2024 season with Triple-A Iowa. Caissie, who turned 22 years old on Monday, opened the year as the fifth-youngest player in the International League. Through 76 games, the outfielder is batting .279 with an .830 OPS, eight homers and 46 RBIs.

The 6-foot-3, 190-pound lefty was one of six prospects with a power grade of 65 or better at the start of the season. His slugging percentage (.443) and ISO (.164) are down compared to his breakout 2023 season. But he’s also reduced his strikeout rate (27.8 percent) while continuing to draw walks at a decent clip (14.2 percent).

Defensively, Caissie has split time almost evenly between the two corner outfield spots this season after being used almost exclusively as a right fielder last year. He’s still seeing a bit more time in right, where his 60-grade arm produced 10 outfield assists in 2023. So far this year, he has just one outfield assist in right and two in left.

Caissie’s power and ability to produce impressive exit velocities will continue to be his calling card. Entering the final week before the All-Star break, Caissie leads all Cubs’ Minor Leaguers with 18 doubles.

“It’s awesome to watch what he’s doing,” Cubs director of player development Jason Kanzler told MLB.com. “He takes his work very seriously. He’s years beyond what his age would indicate.”

Timing and location have not always been favorable for the native of Burlington, Ontario.

Caissie was viewed as an early-round talent in the 2020 Draft class. He toured the showcase circuit, which often took him down to the States, with Prep Baseball Report and the Canadian junior national team. He also participated in scouting events at the Rogers Centre and the Blue Jays’ facility in Florida.

But any final opportunities to boost his Draft stock were taken away by the pandemic. MLB Pipeline ranked Caissie, who had committed to the University of Michigan, as the No. 75 prospect in his class.

He was selected by the Padres at No. 45 overall and braved pandemic-era quarantine restrictions for international travel to fly to San Diego and sign for a below-slot $1.2 million bonus. The trip would be his only official business as a Padres prospect.

With the Minor League season already postponed, Caissie stayed in Canada and continued to work, training at a facility outside Toronto. Just before the new year, the Padres made a flurry of trades, including a seven-player deal that included Caissie going to the Cubs for right-hander Yu Darvish.

Caissie finally made his professional debut in the Arizona Complex League on June 28, 2021 and tore the cover off the ball in the Rookie-level circuit. Over 32 games, he batted .349 with a 1.074 OPS, six homers, seven doubles and 20 RBIs.

He was promoted to Single-A Myrtle Beach in August and didn’t handle full-season pitching quite the same. Over his final 22 games of the season, he batted .233 with a .696 OPS and five extra-base hits, including one homer.

Caissie appeared ready to make a name for himself in 2022, beginning with a very impressive Cactus League debut, where he went 5-for-9 with a pair of doubles and an RBI over four games.

He reported to High-A South Bend, where he’d spend the rest of the season. Caissie had a decent year at the plate, batting .254, but struggled to produce much power, finishing with 11 homers and a .402 slugging percentage. He did find his power stroke at the right time for South Bend, however, delivering a three-run blast in the Midwest League championship clincher.

After winning the title, Caissie’s AFL production with the Mesa Solar Sox mirrored his regular season. He batted .220 with a .356 SLG and one homer in 16 games.

Caissie finally had a power breakout in 2023 that lasted from the World Baseball Classic through the Southern League playoffs.

Caissie collected just three hits in 13 at-bats while representing Team Canada in the WBC. But one of those hits was a solo shot against Great Britain.

He continued to show off the power throughout the regular season with Double-A Tennessee. Caissie cranked 22 homers and 31 doubles to finish with a .519 slugging percentage. He also batted .289 and drove in 84 runs. His strikeout rate was nearly 42 percent in the early part of the season, but he cut down the whiffs significantly toward the end of the year as he helped the Smokies to their first outright league title in 45 years.

The Cubs gave Caissie a pretty long look in the Cactus League this spring. He batted .333 with a pair of homers and 11 RBIs in 16 games.

Unfortunately, the Cubs’ Spring Breakout game against the White Sox was postponed due to rain. So, there still may be one more event in the prospect calendar left for Caissie.

There’s a decent chance he’ll still be a prospect by next March, but he’s certainly in a position to hit his way into the big leagues this year. Especially if the Cubs, who acquired two of their seven Top 100 prospects and the recently graduated Pete Crow-Armstrong via trade, decide to sell at the Trade Deadline.