We should know going in – it should be baked in as an assumption to this post! – that the odds of any Cubs big league Rule 5 selection sticking long-term in the organization is very unlikely. Rule 5 pick Gray Fenter probably ends up a trivia question answer and not a significant contributor, but what’s the fun in pointing out the realities? And, hey, the Cubs did pick him for a reason, right?
I find it more fun to go through the process of attempting to reverse engineer the Cubs fascination with the Orioles prospect. What drew them to spend $100,000 to select him? Unfortunately, just three of Fenter’s 2019 appearances were captured on MiLB.tv video (and, of course, none in 2020), giving me a small video “scouting” sample. But I did watch them all, and those 45 batters faced did provide some insight on Fenter’s strengths and weaknesses.