Iowa Cubs outfielder Kevin Alcantara playing best baseball of his Triple-A career
The Iowa Cubs were trailing 4-1 in the bottom of the ninth inning of their June 28 game against the Columbus Clippers when outfielder Kevin Alcantara stepped to the plate to face pitcher Parker Musinski.
Musinski, a relief pitcher for the Clippers, dropped a curveball that hovered over the heart of the plate.
Alcantara jumped on the 82.4 mile per hour offering from Mushinski and pulverized the pitch 408 feet to left centerfield. The homer, his ninth of the season, came off the bat at a whopping 108.5 mph. It turned into one of the highlights of a remarkable run for Alcantara.
“Over the last two and a half weeks, he’s really started to turn it on,” said Iowa manager Marty Pevey. "It’s really good to see. That’s what we’ve been waiting for. We know he’s probably the most talented guy on the field at any point during any game, no matter who we’re playing.”
Alcantara has turned into one of the hottest hitters in the entire Chicago Cubs organization over the past two weeks. The 22-year-old entered Iowa’s July 3 game against the Omaha Storm Chasers having hit safely in his last five contests and 10 of his last 11. He became the first Iowa player to tally five-straight multi-hit games since Pete Crow-Armstrong accomplished the feat in 2024.
“He’s done really good,” Pevey said.
Alcantara has played so well lately that Pevey called it the best stretch he’s seen out of the young outfielder “since he’s come up” to Triple-A late in 2024. The young outfielder was acquired by the Cubs as part of a trade that sent fan-favorite superstar first baseman Anthony Rizzo to the New York Yankees. Alcantara was seen as an up-and-coming prospect.
Ever since he came to the Cubs, Alcantara has only shown flashes of his potential. He hit .279 with 15 homers in 112 games with Myrtle Beach in 2022. Alcantara then hit .284 with 13 homers across three different levels in 2023. He followed that up with a .278 season that led to a brief promotion to the big leagues in 2024.
But Alcantara struggled out of the gates this season, hitting just .222 in March, .264 in April and .233 in May. The slow start led to questions about Alcantara’s future. Would he ever live up to the high hopes that made him a Top 100 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline? If he was going to, an adjustment had to be made at the plate.
The adjustment was simple. Pevey said Iowa’s hitting staff has been working with Alcantara on making sure he gets his foot down on time. The hope is that it would put him in a good position to hit, so he doesn’t miss fastballs and can better recognize off-speed stuff. Pevey said it’s been a point of emphasis this season.
“It’s always been that way,” Pevey said. “It’s a matter of buying in.”
Now that Alcantara has bought in, he’s playing better than ever. He entered Iowa’s July 3 game hitting .270 with 10 homers and 45 runs driven in. The turnaround comes after a huge June that saw him hit .306 with seven doubles and two home runs in 21 games.
The recent run of success has brought around a new wave of questions about Alcantara's future. Does he have a spot in Chicago? Or will the Cubs deal him to another team at the trade deadline? But the important thing is for Alcantara to keep hitting.
“It’s just a matter of him just putting it all together and when the light goes on and stay on, it’s going to be really special,” Pevey said.
Tommy Birch, the Register's sports enterprise and features reporter, has been working at the newspaper since 2008. He's the 2018, 2020 and 2023 Iowa Sportswriter of the Year. Reach him at tbirch@dmreg.com or 515-284-8468
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa Cubs outfielder Kevin Alcantara has turned his game around
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