Toyota Road Report: April 15-20

It’s an old rivalry set to recharge this week in Grand Rapids! For the first and only time in the 2025 season, the South Bend Cubs are going to match-up with the West Michigan Whitecaps. LMCU Ballpark will feature a duel with some of the top Chicago Cubs and Detroit Tigers prospects, as South Bend is fresh off their first series victory of the season, taking four of six games away from the Peoria Chiefs at Four Winds Field.

When the South Bend Cubs used to be a Midwest League East Division team, series played against West Michigan were far more common than they are now. During my first two years with the team, we opened the season against the Whitecaps in both 2018 and 2019. This April series between the two is early for sure, but this is always a fun road trip.

And it’s going to be even more fun because both of these rosters are loaded with talent. From a West Michigan perspective though, following a 3-0 start to the season with three consecutive victories over the Dayton Dragons, the Whitecaps dropped their most recent series, going 2-4 against the Lake County Captains in Eastlake, Ohio.

And the series loss for West Michigan is a bit surprising, considering they won two of the first three games, and were off to a 5-1 start to the season. Now, the Whitecaps are 5-4, after losing on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. For the Cubs, South Bend fell in their first three games of the campaign, and then rattled off four straight victories to win that series against Peoria.

We’ll see how the next week shakes out, but if there’s one thing for sure about the Whitecaps, their roster is loaded, and it has shades of the Whitecaps back around 2015 and 2016, when they were competing for Midwest League Championships.

And you have to start with Max Clark. The Franklin, Indiana native, and former high school baseball star in this state, was the number-three overall selection by the Tigers in the 2023 MLB Draft.

Clark’s high school numbers while playing at Franklin Community High School are just mesmerizing. More than video game like. That’s a pretty common phrase for a guy who puts up insane numbers. But the ‘video game’ comparison can’t even relate to what Clark did his senior year at Franklin. He his .646 in his final high school season. .646. Batting average. Thats unfathomable to even think about.

That was after he posted a .544 average his junior season. And as a sophomore he also pitched. As a sophomore pitcher in Indiana High School Baseball, Clark posted a 0.84 ERA and 120 strikeouts in 50 innings thrown. This guy was a prospect even before he got to high school, pretty amazing, and the Tigers scooped him up with that number-three pick.

Last year, Clark got his first taste of the Midwest League at the back-end of the season. And by that point the South Bend Cubs had already played West Michigan, so they didn’t have to deal with him. As he’s back now in the month of April, he will certainly be a threat in this lineup. In eight games so far this season, Clark is batting .281 with a homer and 11 RBI. As West Michigan dropped three in a row over the weekend, has also gone nothing for his last eight at the plate.

It’s not just Clark though, who ranks as the Tigers number-two prospect. Also at the top of the Tigers prospects ranks include infielder and number-three prospect Kevin McGonigle, but he just hit the Injured List after playing one game last week. Detroit number-six prospect Josue Briceño also calls West Michigan home as their starting catcher.

Players to watch on South Bend…

Cristian Hernandez, INF: You have to get things started with the Midwest League hits leader. After going back-and-forth all of last week with Cedar Rapids’ Billy Amick, teeter-tottering with one another to lead the league in hits, Cristian Hernandez got the last laugh heading into today’s off-day with two base hits in the finale against Peoria. With 15 knocks on the season, Hernandez leads the way in the circuit, and is showing no signs of slowing down. I had a feeling heading into this season that not enough people were talking about Hernandez. If it’s possible for a top-10 prospect to fly under the radar, Hernandez definitely did. He closed last season with the South Bend Cubs, and put up solid enough numbers, but people are quickly finding out this season just why the Chicago Cubs put so much stock into this guy when they signed him. He’s showing off the power, with multiple extra base hits smacked off the wall already this year, and his first home run of the season bouncing off The Cubs Den Team Store earlier last week. But he’s also been impeccable with the glove in the cold weather, which is also a bit of a rarity for young infielders at this level. When it is cold, we have seen guys struggle at shortstop; Even the best of them with the glove over the years like Gleyber Torres, Andy Weber, and others. Hernandez has glued in perfectly to this lineup, hitting lead-off every day, and he’s also got six multi-hit games, in only nine games played, along with a .417 average. The breakout season of Cristian Hernandez has started, and the train is still just leaving the station. Plus, heading into the West Michigan series, he is going to be the reigning Midwest League Player of the Week!

Johzan Oquendo, RHP: Time to talk about the South Bend Cubs bullpen, which over time from the Beloit road series into the Peoria series, posted a consecutive scoreless innings streak of 11.1 straight frames without an earned run allowed. A big part of that, is the return of Johzan Oquendo. After missing all of 2024 due to injury, Oquendo is back and on the scene in a big way. He was a South Bend Cub briefly in 2023, but the guy he is turning into now is quite a development after the Cubs took a flyer on him in the 16th round way back in 2019. Oquendo already has two wins out of the Cubs bullpen, and even though wins for a pitcher are not looked at how they used to be, he has been instrumental in both games he has won of the Cubs four victories this season. He appeared in a 1-2-3 shutout inning on the road in Beloit in a no-decision, but now has won back-to-back games for the Cubs after posting a combined 3.2 shutout innings against the Chiefs with no hits allowed, no runs, no walks, and seven strikeouts. In fact, in his 4.2 total innings so far, the only thing that interferes with total perfection is a single hit-batter. That’s it. He’s been exceptional.

Vince Reilly, RHP: If Oquendo is nailing down wins in close games, that means somebody else has got to lock down the saves. And so far, that has been Vince Reilly in the 9th inning. Reilly has converted both of his save opportunities on the young season, and the only time has given up a run was on the road in Beloit, when pitching in the 10th inning. Which of course, he did not put the automatic runner at second base when Beloit walked-off the Cubs in Game 2 of the season. In both home outings at Four Winds Field, Reilly locked down saves, and that included on Opening Night last Tuesday. Reilly converted six saves in 32 games worth of action last year at Myrtle Beach, and now he’s already one-third of the way there. Reilly has got a serious chance to lead the Midwest League in saves this season, and already pitching in these high-leverage spots, he's getting valuable experience for the summer. If there’s one thing that has rang true about the best of the best South Bend Cubs teams in the past, it’s the fact that both championship teams in 2019 and 2022 had a solidified closer. In 2019, Ethan Roberts had the first half on lock, the second half was Brian Glowicki, who got the final three outs of the 2019 title. In 2022, it ranged from guys like Michael McAvene, Jake Riendl, and the guy who secured the championship on the mound, Sheldon Reed. Point being, you need a guy in the 9th who is stone cold and can pitch when the lights are the brightest. To this point a couple weeks in, that’s been Vince Reilly.

Schedule and Probables…

Tuesday, April 15 - 6:35 PM ET: RHP Rayner Castillo vs RHP Tyler Schlaffer

Wednesday, April 16 - 12:05 PM ET: LHP Joe Miller vs RHP Luis Rujano

Thursday, April 17 - 6:35 PM ET: RHP Max Alba vs. RHP Jaxon Wiggins

Friday, April 18 - 6:35 PM ET: LHP Andrew Sears vs. RHP Nick Dean

Saturday, April 19 - 2:00 PM ET: RHP Carlos Marcano vs. RHP Ryan Gallagher

Sunday, April 20 - 2:00 PM ET: RHP Rayner Castillo vs. RHP Kenten Egbert