Catching Prospect Miguel Amaya Expected to Join AA Tennessee ‘Relatively Soon’
Cubs catching prospect Miguel Amaya hasn’t taken an at-bat with an affiliated team since June 3 of 2021 with the Double-A Tennessee Smokies, but that could change “relatively soon.” According to Tommy Birch of the Des Moines Register, the Cubs are close to promoting Amaya back to Tennessee after spending some time working into baseball shape in the Arizona Complex League.
Some good news for Cubs fans: I’m told Miguel Amaya will be headed to Double-A Tennessee “relatively soon” barring something unforeseen happening.
Amaya has yet to play in an affiliated game in 2022. He’s been getting ABs in Arizona while coming back from Tommy John surgery.
— Tommy Birch (@TommyBirch) July 14, 2022
Amaya is batting .226 with a home run across 31 at-bats in Mesa and he’s accumulated a total of 110 ABs since 2019, so a few growing pains should be expected. He appears to have slimmed down somewhat over the past year as well and might be able to add back some more muscle moving forward. How his bat catches up from the lost time is very important because Amaya is an advanced catcher in terms of his skills behind the plate and the ability to call games.
This is something to monitor, particularly with the Cubs potentially trading Willson Contreras in the next two weeks. That doesn’t mean the team is counting on Amaya to come up and take a spot in Chicago next season, particularly with Yan Gomes still under contract for 2023 with a club option for ’24, but how the young catcher is able to adapt over the final two months or so of the year might offer a preview.
Still just 23 years old, Amaya has plenty of time to make up for lost time and shouldn’t be written off even as his ranking on prospect lists continues to drop.
