Signed by the Giants for $60,000 out of the Dominican Republic in 2016, Canario didn't make it to full-season ball until 2021. He has belted 55 homers in the past two years and ranked second in the Minors with 37 while moving from High-A to Triple-A in 2022. He joined the Cubs in July 2021, arriving along with Caleb Kilian in the Kris Bryant trade. A baserunning mishap in the Dominican Winter League last November left him with a broken left ankle and a dislocated left shoulder, both of which required surgery that cost him the first half of the 2023 season.
Big leaguers took note of Canario's well-above-average raw power when he played at the Giants' alternate site in 2020. He's geared to hit for power with lightning-fast bat speed, formidable strength and plenty of loft and leverage in his right-handed stroke. He's overly aggressive and pull-happy at the plate, so he will pile up strikeouts, but he did make strides with his swing decisions last season and boosted his walk rate from 7 percent in the first half to 15 percent in the second half.
A two-way player at Duke, Mervis spent most of his first two college seasons as a pitcher before focusing on hitting in his final two years. A priority free agent after getting shut out in the shortened five-round 2020 Draft, he had offers from several clubs and signed with the Cubs for the maximum $20,000 permitted under pandemic rules. He quadrupled his home run output from nine in his 2021 pro debut to 36 last season while leading the Minors with 78 extra-base hits, 310 total bases and 119 RBIs and ranking second in doubles (40), third in homers (36), fifth in slugging (.605) and eighth in OPS (.984).
Mervis features the best combination of power and contact in the Cubs system, and he took off when he improved his bat path and his swing decisions -- though he tried to do too much and struggled during his first big league callup this summer. His bat speed and the strength in his 6-foot-4, 225-pound frame are obvious, but he's more than just a masher. His relatively compact left-handed swing enables him to make consistent hard contact and he did a much better job of handling same-side pitchers in 2022 than he did in his debut.
