Feature Story

Here come the cubbies!

By Cyote Williams

4/2/2025

Darius Hill rounds the bases donning the Iowa Cubs Star Wars jersey last season. Photo by Dylan Heuer

The Iowa Cubs team is an institution in Des Moines. I-Cub fans pack the ballpark all season long and even watch at home. The fan loyalty is evidenced by CITYVIEW readers who voted for the Cubbies as the Best Local Sports Team and Best Local Outdoor Sporting Event for yet another year in the Best of Des Moines poll.

The wins were not where team officials and fans wanted them to be last season, but that does not change the palpable feeling of excitement currently running through the organization. The Cubs farm system is once again loaded with some of the best young prospects in baseball, and the people behind the scenes have been putting together exciting promotions to make fans feel engaged throughout the season. We spoke with a few of the I-Cubs movers and shakers to see why they are excited for the 2024-2025 MiLB season.

Last season

The 2024 I-Cubs had a down year in terms of wins. The team narrowly missed the 2023 playoffs, but the gap between the team and the postseason widened in 2024. The I-Cubs finished with a 68-82 record, second to last in the International League West. See-saw records can be common in minor league teams due to players leaving when they are playing their best ball. Tough draws with the weather certainly don’t help attract fans either.

“It was a slow start to the season. April was just brutal. Twelve of our first 13 games, the game-time temperature was under 55 degrees. It’s hard to get people excited about sitting outside for a few hours in that, but that’s not something we can control. And once we got to summer, in June and July, they (I-Cubs) were better than they were the year before,” Assistant General Manager Randy Wehofer said.

Caleb Killian finished last season 2-0 in seven starts for the I-Cubs, recorded a 3.22 ERA and struck out 38 batters. Photo by Dylan Heuer

This season

MLB.com has the Chicago Cubs organization ranked as having the eighth-best farm system in the MLB. That bodes well for the I-Cubs team and its fans. The Cubs are tied with the Miami Marlins for the most prospects ranked inside the top 100 with Matt Shaw, Cade Horton, Owen Caissie, Moises Ballesteros, James Triantos, Kevin Alcántara, and Jefferson Rojas. Besides Rojas, all of these players spent time in Des Moines last season. This has the I-Cubs brass excited.

“I said this last year, and it still applies. It feels a lot like that 2014-2015 situation leading into the World Series win in 2016, where they had all this young talent that they were keeping together at the minor league level. If it turns out to be anywhere near as good as how that went, everybody will be ecstatic,” Wehofer said.

The team’s new director of broadcasting, Jason Kempf, comes to the team with a decade of broadcasting experience in the minor leagues and shares Wehofer’s excitement for what is to come this season.

“Those prospects should all be here, at least in March, April and May. I think they’re going to be really talented early in the year. You can never say if that’s going to mean they win a lot of games, but I think this is the kind of team that you get pretty excited about. I can promise you, there is going to be a lot of interest here, a lot of really good players that you’re going to know because of what they do in the big leagues in the next four to five years,” Kempf said.

The Marquee Sports Network, Chicago’s regional sports network, is putting its support behind the team as well. Wehofer says the team averages around 14-15 games per season but will have 20 this year.

“That shows you how the Cubs feel about all the important things that are going to be happening here throughout the season,” Wehofer said.

Five players played more than 80 games for the Cubbies last season: Caissie, Darius Hill, BJ Murray, Chase Strumpf and Matt Mervis. Add in those highly touted prospects that are expected to spend ample time in Iowa, and there is good reason to get excited. Aside from Mervis, I-Cubs fans can expect to see the four others returning this season.

“Matt Shaw has a chance to make the big league roster, but it’s not guaranteed. All of them (the team’s top prospects outside of Shaw) finished the year with us and really don’t have a path to be big leaguers to begin the season this year. So, you got four of the top five that are pretty well guaranteed to be Iowa Cubs,” Wehofer said.

Caissie played more games for Iowa than any player last season at 127. The outfielder is one of the most highly touted young talents in baseball at the moment, ranked as the No. 53 overall prospect. He hit a team-high 19 home runs and 75 RBIs while batting .278.

Cade Horton is ranked as the No. 51 prospect in baseball. He pitched in nine games for the I-Cubs in 2024, striking out 40 batters in 34 innings.

The No. 68 ranked prospect, Moises Ballesteros, played 68 games with Iowa last season. He hit 10 home runs, had 35 RBIs and hit at a .281 clip.

James Triantos is ranked No. 72 among all prospects. He played in 26 games for the I-Cubs but spent the majority of his season in AA. In his short time in Des Moines, Triantos had 12 RBIs and hit .302 with a .351 on-base percentage.

The No. 89 ranked prospect, Kevin Alcántara, came to the Cubs in a midseason trade last year. He impressed in his short time in Iowa. In 35 games, he hit five home runs, had 22 RBIs and hit .292. Alcántara was called up to the majors for a short time as well, playing with the Cubs in three games in 2024.

Last but not least of the Cub’s top 100 prospects who are expected to spend time in Iowa is No. 96 ranked Jefferson Rojas. Rojas spent all of last year in A+ and could rise up the ranks throughout the season. In 2024, Rojas hit six home runs, had 47 RBIs and batted .245.

In 68 games last season, Moises Ballesteros hit 10 home runs, had 35 RBIs and batted .281. He is the No. 68 ranked prospect in baseball. Photo by Dylan Heuer

Promoting the I-Cubs

Good baseball is not the only reason people enjoy heading to the ballpark. Of course, some fans still like to fill out their own scorecard. But, for others, promotional nights and classic traditions are just as enjoyable as the crack of the bat.

The Iowa Cubs rolled out a bunch of themed nights last season with great success. Several of them will be returning this season.

“We’re bringing back Star Wars Night, Margaritaville Night and Harry Potter Day. But we’re also adding in Peanuts Day. So, Snoopy and Charlie Brown and the whole gang. The calendar is packed, and I’m so excited for it. There’s a little something for everyone this season,” Director of Marketing Elly Simpson said.

Margaritaville Night will be on June 14, Star Wars Night on July 18, Peanuts Day on Aug. 24 and Harry Potter Day on Sept. 7. The I-Cubs will wear specialty jerseys that will be auctioned off at the end of the night. The I-Cubs will also wear Jackie Robinson jerseys on April 15 and retro Iowa Oaks jerseys on May 1, June 12, July 31, Aug. 21 and Sept. 18.

For the sixth consecutive year, the I-Cubs will wear their Demonios de Des Moines jerseys in conjunction with Minor League Baseball’s Copa de la Diversión initiative. Iowa will become the Demonios de Des Moines for three dates in 2025 — May 4, June 29 and Sept. 20.

With 75 home games to plan for, these promotions are just the tip of the iceberg for what fans can expect inside of Principal Park in 2025. Classic promotions like Friday Night Fireworks and several dog-friendly days will also return. The staff is making plenty of new additions as well.

“I think there’s too much pressure to try and reinvent the wheel or to make everything over the top 75 days in a row, but I think baseball fans pay attention to the details. While a lot of people like baseball, sometimes they need a little something with the baseball that makes today important enough to come to the ballpark. And that’s what we spend all of our free time thinking about, and how we create those kinds of opportunities,” Wehofer said.

Two bobblehead night giveaways for the first 1,000 fans are also planned — Caissie on May 31 and Ballesteros on July 19. Caissie and Ballesteros should spend a lot of time in Iowa, but if they perform well enough, and if the Chicago Cubs have some spots open up to injury, the possibility always remains that they, or other big names, could head to the majors for extended periods of time. How does the marketing team work around that? According to Kempf, it still has its plusses as a broadcaster.

“If the roster is 28 players, there’s only so much you can talk about for those 28 players, and so many times you can interview them. Getting new blood into the team is never a bad thing because it’s another person that you can interview that people haven’t heard from, and especially when guys come up from double-A that haven’t been here yet. They’re young, they’re learning at this level, and they have a story that hasn’t necessarily been told in Des Moines yet. So it keeps it fresh,” Kempf said.

That can be a challenge for the marketing staff, but it is one they welcome.

“A lot of it is a quick turnaround and short notice for us. So, we, as marketing staff, we’ll put our heads together and say, ‘Hey, here’s who’s coming up, or here who’s coming down on rehab,’ for example, and try to use that to our advantage as best as we can,” Simpson said.

Keeping things fresh

On the day of these interviews, in March, construction workers and the grounds crew were busy at work on the outside of the stadium and on the field.

“The playing field is brand new. We tore it out and started over in the fall. There’s a new infield, new sod and a new warning track. We took the field and the walls down. Everything all the way down to the drainage. It’s been about 14 years since we had done that, which is slightly overdue, but not terribly. We get great reviews for our playing field, but, over time, you just need to start over,” Wehofer said.

A considerable amount of upgrades have been made to the stadium inside and out in the last two years that have enhanced the look of the ballpark, including the completion of new locker rooms and plenty of external construction.

Kempf, who is new to the team, says he can feel the difference being at the Iowa Cubs versus the other teams he spent time with.

“I think people care more about the Cubs than any of the other teams. I’ve worked for places where we had to create coverage like this and actively reach out and try to find people to come to the games, whereas here it’s pretty much automatic, people do want to cover you. So, if you can give them good stuff, they’re just going to keep coming back,” Kempf said.

It’s been a surprise for him but one he has enjoyed.

“The amount of interaction and people reaching out and wanting to do interviews, from Cubs podcasts to magazines to newspapers to radio. It’s been pretty overwhelming in a good way. The people working on the field down there right now, the front office, more than any other team I worked for, has people that have been here for 10 to 15 years, rather than kids who are taking their first job out of college. There’s a lot of people who know exactly what they’re doing. They’re really good at it, and they’ve done it for a long time. I truly am the new person trying to meet that standard,” Kempf said. ♦