Josiah Hartshorn Joins Exclusive Club with 100 RBI as Teenager
We’re running out of superlatives for Josiah Hartshorn, who rocketed to the top spot in the Cubs’ prospect rankings in his first season of professional baseball. The switch-hitting first baseman/outfielder will be a teenager until February, but he’s excelling at High-A South Bend against players who average a little more than three years older. His solo shot on Tuesday was his 16th for South Bend and 21st for the year, and it also got him to 100 runs batted in this season.
Josiah Hartshorn reaches 100 RBIs, the fifth most among Minor Leaguers this season!
MLB’s No. 39 prospect (@Cubs) connects on his 21st pro homer, 16th for the High-A @SBCubs: pic.twitter.com/ZoX6SQop4D
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) August 26, 2026
That makes Hartshorn just the eighth teenager in any organization and the first for the Cubs since 2005 to reach the 100-RBI plateau. He’s slashing .313/.420/.582 with five homers and 14 RBI so far in August, giving him a 1.002 OPS that is currently 33 points better than he’s posted in any month so far. Only April and May saw a higher OBP (.429, .424) and only June saw more slug (.587), but the overall performance being better this month says a lot about how this young man is adjusting.
There doesn’t appear to be anything left for him to prove at High-A, so he could very well find himself at Double-A Knoxville by the end of the season. South Bend’s regular season wraps up on September 6, at which point Knoxville still has a week of games. The Cubs have traditionally liked for prospects to experience the playoffs, and Hartshorn could even get a chance to do so at both levels.
The SB Cubs will play on the road against the second-half winners of the West Division in the Midwest League playoffs on September 8, then they will host Game 2 on September 10 and Game 3 (if necessary) on September 11. The Smokies play their final two games right after that, then they will likewise open the Southern League playoffs on the road before hosting either one or two games. Even though team success in the minors is secondary to individual player development, there’s something to be said for getting a taste of winning.
Hartshorn appears to have quite an appetite, as nothing has stopped him from chewing through opposing pitchers this season. He could be the kind of fast riser who finds himself in Chicago at a much earlier age than most, making MLB Pipelines 2028 ETA seem more than reasonable.
