The Chicago Cubs set the tone of their 2026 draft with their first pick.
Their investment in University of Mississippi right-hander Cade Townsend with the No. 23 pick paved the way for the Cubs to hone in on pitching and scour the college ranks for the best fits. The Cubs finished with 16 pitchers — 14 right-handers and two left-handers — two infielders, two catchers and one outfielder.
“We set out what we wanted to accomplish, which was injecting the system with some potential impact bats while at the same time focusing quite a bit on some pitching volume and also pitching quality,” vice president of scouting Dan Kantrovitz said Sunday.
There are three key takeaways from the Cubs’ 21-player draft class.
1. Pitching, pitching and more pitching.
Going into the draft, Kantrovitz indicated the Cubs would emphasize pitching as a target.
Well, the Cubs certainly followed through with that vision by using 16 of their 21 picks on pitchers. That doesn’t necessarily mean the Cubs passed up on hitters they normally would have taken in certain spots to fulfill their goal of infusing the system with more arms.
“I don’t think that really ate at me at any point during the draft or if there’s any sense of buyer’s remorse from taking a pitcher in certain points,” Kantrovitz said. “But I think it’s natural to feel that at certain points with whoever you take. That’s the one thing that makes the draft great and also super difficult is that you’re always looking back at it and trying to figure out, well, who could you have taken here? What would have been the best pick there? And kind of looking back and evaluating it, but I don’t think it ever is a situation where it’s, like, ‘oh, we took a pitcher here, we should have taken a hitter.'”
The Cubs took a pitcher with 10 consecutive picks between rounds 3-12. The organization clearly believes in vice president of pitching Tyler Zombro and their pitching infrastructure to maximize and hone the arms they’ve drafted.
Kantrovitz said Day 2 of the draft, which this year was rounds 5 through 20, already tends to skew a little more toward pitching because if an organization isn’t drafting them, then oftentimes it means signing undrafted free agents afterward to cover innings.
2. Cubs go in heavy on college players.
The Cubs ultimately only used two of their selections on high school players.
They took right-hander Dylan Blomker out of La Cueva High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the fourth round and catcher Emanuel Hernandez from the Carlos Beltran Baseball Academy in Puerto Rico in the 13th round. Kantrovitz believes Blomker’s arm talent speaks for itself and that the sky is the limit with his 6-foot-3 frame. The Cubs project Hernandez being able to stick at catcher and plan to give him the runway to grow into a position that historically takes longer to develop.
Otherwise, all of the Cubs’ picks came from the college ranks.
“When you’re talking about volume in a draft, it’s always going to be slanted more towards the college group, it’s just the way draft economics work,” Kantrovitz said. “So from that standpoint it’s probably not surprising that when you look at the composition of the arms we took that the vast majority are college arms. That’s just really the only way that you can kind of fit in that many pitchers into a cap.”
Eight of their college pitchers came from teams in the Big Ten, ACC or SEC.
Minnesota right-hander Isaac Morton (sixth round) had his promising junior season cut short by Tommy John surgery. The Cubs haven’t been scared of taking pitchers who have had that procedure in their history or even missing some of their draft year because of it.
“I don’t think you can shy away from it because if you do, you end up eliminating a large chunk of the talent pool,” Kantrovitz said of elbow injury history. “As long as you’re not drafting all pitchers that aren’t going to be able to pitch their first year, I think you have a kind of a staggered or laddered approach. But he’s exciting when he’s healthy. I mean, there’s as much spin coming out of that as anybody and some nasty sink.
“When he’s on, it’s some of the nastiest stuff in college baseball.”
Among the plethora of college pitchers chosen by the Cubs was right-hander Chase Meyer (ninth round), who was dismissed from West Virginia’s program in early March due to violating team rules. The Cubs’ draft process already involves talking to prospective picks’ coaches, teammates and anyone else who might have information or perspective on a player’s character and personality, plus often getting to interview the player at the draft combine. After looking into Meyer’s situation at West Virginia, the Cubs determined they felt comfortable enough drafting him based on the information they had, Kantrovitz said.
3. Position players feature some big power.
Inherently, there is some risk that comes with drafting players who display top-level power while also featuring swing-and-miss in their game.
That’s the balance the Cubs had to navigate in their decision to take Florida State first baseman Myles Bailey (second-round compensation pick) and Texas Tech outfielder Caden Sorrell.
Sorrell, whose grandfathers both played in the majors, slugged 23 home runs and 20 doubles in 56 games while drawing 33 walks and striking out 61 times. Bailey hit 13 home runs and five doubles in 26 games before an ankle injury and subsequent surgery ended his season.
“It’s hard to find someone with top-of-the-scale power, truly some elite raw power that Myles possesses without accompanying that with some swing-and-miss,” Kantrovitz said. “There’s a trade-off there, and in the case of Myles we felt like his hit tool has developed enough where that’s going to be manageable, and it’s going to allow him to get to his power.”
Kantrovtiz described Georgia catcher Brennan Hudson, their 20th-round selection, as his “gut-feel guy” from the draft.
“It’s a sweet stroke, and he’s got the tools to stay back there as a catcher,” Kantrovitz said. “He’s probably one of my favorite picks of this class.”
