MESA, Ariz. — Even a year later, Owen Caissie hasn’t quite found the words to describe the reassuring feeling that settled over him last spring. The Cubs outfield prospect, a member of Team Canada in last year’s World Baseball Classic, was sitting in his car at a hotel when something clicked.
“It’s like a mix of confidence and knowing that if I do my work, everything will just play out,” Caissie told the Sun-Times. “And I’m not worried if I make it this year, next year, five years down the road, 10 years down the road. My time will come, and I’m pretty OK with that.”
Caissie is having the best spring training of any Cubs hitter this year. He entered Tuesday batting .529 with a pair of doubles, a home run and three walks.
Sure, there’s a list of caveats. Pitchers are focused on their own work right now and not looking at scouting reports. Caissie’s 17 at-bats entering Tuesday were a small sample size. Spring results don’t matter.
But none of that diminishes the impression Caissie has made in the first couple of weeks.
“[I’m] just trying to be myself and try to listen to all the guys and be a fly on the wall,” he said. “Just really try and showcase myself, because I know I really don’t have a shot to make the team right now.”
That was a conversation he had with the coaching staff at the beginning of camp. Caissie, 21, got a major-league training invite but is in Arizona for the experience, not to fight for an Opening Day roster spot.
“It’s the kind of camp you want for your first major-league camp, where there isn’t a lot of that expectation on you,” manager Craig Counsell said. “Just go out and do those things like listen, learn, and then prove to yourself that you belong on the field with everybody.”
Caissie is entering just his fourth pro season. The Padres selected him in the second round of the 2020 draft, out of Notre Dame High School in Burlington, Ontario. But before he could play a game, the organization traded him to the Cubs as part of the package for pitcher Yu Darvish that December.
Caissie was still a teenager at the time. The Cubs saw promise in his powerful left-handed swing and 6-3 frame.
Months later, they acquired an even taller outfield prospect — Kevin Alcantara — from the Yankees in the Anthony Rizzo trade. On Tuesday, Counsell tied Caissie’s and Alcantara’s development paths together.
“They don’t get to who they are as players the same way, but the similar part is they’re both tall kids,” he said. “That’s a real thing in baseball. . . . The baseball swing is harder for tall people. There’s advantages to [being tall], but it also makes it harder. And so, there’s a pretty good history of it just taking a little longer — and having to be patient in that way is something important for both Owen and Kevin.”
Alcantara, the Cubs’ No. 6 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline, spent most of last season at High-A South Bend but finished with five games at Double-A Tennessee.
Caissie, ranked No. 3, spent the whole 2023 season in Double-A. He set career highs in walks (76) and slugging percentage (.519).
“He’s clearly very prepared at the plate when it comes to his approach,” assistant general manager Jared Banner said. “He’s worked on that very diligently over the last couple of years, and it’s beginning to bear fruit. He’s getting himself very good pitches to hit, and he’s not missing them.”
Looking back on his last two years, Caissie sees mindset as his biggest area of growth.
“[I’m] finding a bit of peace and really just trying to be the best I can be every day,” he said. “And if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. And I get to go back to the ballpark the next day.”
