Owen Ayers Is on the Doorstep of an MLB Call-Up
The 572nd pick in the 2024 draft is now the Cubs’ No. 2 prospect — and September 1 is a critical deadline that might tip the scales.
Three weeks ago, Owen Ayers homered in his first Triple-A game. We covered his rise from 19th-round afterthought to Iowa Cubs starter in our August 1 piece. The only question left was when Chicago would call him up.
Now insiders have an answer.
Cubs beat writers and prospect trackers spent the week of August 12 reaching the same conclusion. Ayers is the most likely candidate in the Chicago organization to see his name on the September 1 call-up list. That date is the first day MLB clubs can expand their active rosters from 26 to 28. Multiple reporters who cover the organization say the Cubs plan to give Ayers a genuine look. That means a real audition behind the plate, not a brief cameo.
The numbers made that outcome inexorable. Inexorable means unstoppable, like a tide that does not negotiate with the shore. At Double-A Knoxville earlier this year, Ayers posted a 167 wRC+ in 65 games — 67 percent above what the average league hitter produced. Then, at Triple-A Iowa, the slash line came off those heights. But the patience did not.
| Level | G | AVG | OBP | SLG | HR | RBI | OPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| High-A (South Bend) | 11 | — | — | — | 6 | — | 1.341 |
| Double-A (Knoxville) | 65 | .304 | .417 | .591 | 16 | 48 | 1.008 |
| Triple-A (Iowa, mid-Aug.) | 43 | .283 | .398 | .454 | 6 | — | .852 |
A .398 on-base percentage at Triple-A is not an accident. That is Ayers studying opposing pitchers, tracking which counts give the hitter an edge, and refusing to give away at-bats. He also has a 70-grade arm and a 1.85-second pop time — tools that play at any level. MLB Pipeline lists him as the Cubs’ No. 2 overall prospect.
He was the 572nd pick in the 2024 draft.
That number matters. Every team in baseball drafted 571 players before the Cubs got to Ayers. Nobody built a five-year plan around pick 572. But Ayers made the plan irrelevant. He learned to read pitchers. He built an approach at the plate. He treated each level as a problem to solve instead of a waiting room.
A catcher who works a 15.1 percent walk rate in the minors is the same catcher who calls the right pitch behind the plate. In fact, the discipline is one thing, not two. Consider what Ayers does in the batter’s box. He reads release points, tracks which pitches have late movement, and stores that information for the next at-bat. In other words, he is doing catcher’s work from both sides of the play. That is the part of his game no box score reports, and the part that earned him this moment.
September 1 is nine days away. The Cubs have to decide. But the case has been building since April, across three levels and the better part of a season. Pick 572 has left the front office with no argument left to make.
You do not need to be anyone’s top prospect to build that kind of case. Instead, you need to do the work at every level until the answer becomes obvious.
Try this at your next practice
- Count-discipline tracking. After each plate appearance in practice or a game, write down the count when you put the ball in play. Over a week, find the counts where you expand your zone. Then commit to taking one more pitch in those counts.
- Pitcher-read bullpen. During a teammate’s bullpen session, station yourself behind the catcher and call pitches before the catcher signals. Grade yourself after each pitch. Over time, you are building the same real-time pattern recognition Ayers uses every game.
- Receiving footwork reps. First, set up in your stance and have a partner roll balls to each corner. Then work on staying quiet in your lower half while your glove shifts to frame the pitch. The catcher who moves less looks more in control — to the umpire and to the pitcher.
Sources: Owen Ayers Breakout May Lead Him to a 2026 September Call Up (Last Word on Sports, Aug. 17, 2026); Cubs Could Give Top Prospect Owen Ayers Late-Season MLB Opportunity (Yahoo Sports); Chicago Cubs Prospect Named Most Likely September Callup (Chi City Sports); The Cubs Are Reportedly Considering Bringing Up Owen Ayers This Year (Bleacher Nation, Aug. 12, 2026); Newest Top-100 Chicago Cubs Prospect Could Make MLB Debut Soon (Sports Mockery).
