One of Baseball's Top Prospects Makes His MLB Debut—In His Hometown

Toronto-area born Owen Caissie is one of the top overall prospects in all of baseball. On Thursday, he's making his major league debut for the Chicago Cubs—in his hometown, against the Blue Jays.

REPORT: The Cubs are calling up their top prospect, outfielder Owen Caissie, per @JesseRogersESPN. pic.twitter.com/jdyBjl9rRL
— Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) August 14, 2025

The 23-year-old outfielder has been tearing it up in Triple-A this season in 93 games, with 22 homers, a .289 batting average, .389 on-base percentage, .566 slugging pct., and a .955 OPS. And he is red-hot, too; in his last 10 games, he's slashed .424/.524/.667.

According to Jon Morosi, the only reason Caissie hadn't been called up earlier this summer is the fact that the Cubs' outfield is jam-packed, with four legit starting outfielders already, in Kyle Tucker, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Seiya Suzuki and Ian Happ.

It's Owen Caissie time ⏰@jonmorosi shares more on the Cubs' top prospect and his reported promotion to the Big Leagues. pic.twitter.com/OrF2N8d5fd
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) August 14, 2025

He calls it a "storybook callup."

The power-hitting Caissie took a 5:00am flight to get into Toronto on Thursday to be able to suit up in the 3:00pm start at Rogers Centre. He got a nice hand from the Toronto crowd before his first at-bat, swung at the first major league he saw, and was then robbed of at least a double by a spectacular catch by Davis Schneider:

Davis Schneider lays out to make an INCREDIBLE catch to rob Owen Caissie of his first hit 😱 pic.twitter.com/OAIwzetXH3
— MLB (@MLB) August 14, 2025

Top Cubs prospect Owen Caissie makes major league debut

The former second-round pick (2020 MLB Draft) is said to have incredible bat speed, 30-HR power, and plus speed to boot. He was acquired by the Cubs from the San Diego Padres as part of the trade to send Yu Darvish to Southern California in December of 2020. At the time, he was the Friars' 13th-ranking prospect. He has since soared to No. 1 on the Cubbies' charts.

Owen Caissie’s last 30 games:
.339/.432/.705 — 185 wRC+
11 HR | 20 RBI | 18 BB

pic.twitter.com/3Z3iwYcvoy
— The Wrigley Wire (@TheWrigleyWire) August 14, 2025

Unfortunately, for every feel-good story like Caissie's, there's a devastating one, which comes in the form of Miguel Amaya's ugly ankle injury in Wednesday's game in Toronto, which is what made this move to call up Caissie possible.

Cubs catcher Miguel Amaya was carted off the field after injuring his leg stepping on first

This was his first game back from the 60-Day IL with an oblique injury pic.twitter.com/R309K3wLIr
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) August 14, 2025

Amaya had just returned from the 60-day IL for an oblique injury, and was playing in his first game back.