2026 MLB Draft

[CubinNY]

On 5/5/2026 at 7:25 AM, CaliforniaRaisin said:

 

 I would bet money the Cubs draft him.

[Bertz]

Keith Law mocks Zion Rose to us, and we're finally deep enough into the draft season where mocks are kind of real and not not just "here are my rankings next to the teams in the draft order"

[CaliforniaRaisin]

3 hours ago, Bertz said:

Keith Law mocks Zion Rose to us, and we're finally deep enough into the draft season where mocks are kind of real and not not just "here are my rankings next to the teams in the draft order"

I like watching Rose hit. Just don’t see him being valued at 23 by Kantrovitz due to where he is on the defensive spectrum + defensive concerns. 

Also, it really feels like Klaw doesn’t have connections to the Cubs… He mocked Pierce and Aloy in his Cubs mocks last year and Aloy definitely did not feel like a fit for the Cubs draft models with his swing and miss.

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

He has the Sox passing on Cholowsky for Emerson or Lombard. That'd be shocking.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Jim Callis' first mock: https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-pipeline-2026-mock-draft-may-7

[JBears79]

4 hours ago, Tangled Up in Plaid said:

He has the Sox passing on Cholowsky for Emerson or Lombard. That'd be shocking.

That would be such a white sox decision lol

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

20 minutes ago, CaliforniaRaisin said:

 

I'm in, if he ends up lasting that long

[CaliforniaRaisin]

23 minutes ago, Tangled Up in Plaid said:

I'm in, if he ends up lasting that long

Callis had him going the pick after the Cubs in his mock yesterday but who knows in the next month.

[We Got The Whole 9]

Please don't go to the NLC

 

Draft prospect Brody Bumila throws 20-strikeout no-hitter https://share.google/2pmRAFxFrGyrRfABv

 

69 Ks in 27 IP LOL

[CaliforniaRaisin]

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/2026-mlb-mock-draft-3-0-first-round-picks-for-every-team-with-2-months-to-go/

Reddemann, Robbins and Townsend go in the 3 picks right after and I'd prefer all 3 to Edwards.

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

1 hour ago, CaliforniaRaisin said:

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/2026-mlb-mock-draft-3-0-first-round-picks-for-every-team-with-2-months-to-go/

Reddemann, Robbins and Townsend go in the 3 picks right after and I'd prefer all 3 to Edwards.

Yeah, Edwards seems Jordan Wicks'ian. Low ceiling, high(ish) floor

[CaliforniaRaisin]

https://www.justbaseball.com/mlb-draft/2026-first-mock/
 

 

[Bertz]

Cubs are in need of an Ace

[Jason Ross]

The thing I am most excited about for this draft is the influence that Tyler Zombro will have on the process. Generally speaking, I think Kantrovitz and team have done a pretty good job in the draft. They have found value in the first almost every year (Jordan Wicks may be the one miss I blame them for? The 2020 draft feels like a harsh thing to pin on any org with the limited funds and scouting and sample size. And Wicks isn't dead yet, but he seems to be teetering into "didn't work out" territory more and more - and there were moments I saw what they did, so I'm not immune here). They have done well to identify value outside of the first round as well, even deep-cut picks. 

At the same time, I'm interested to see what Zombro adds to the draft room and what kinds of arms he's interested in. And I think that's going to be the biggest wrench in "what do the Cubs do?" this year. They clearly need a haul of pitching to infuse into the system, so right off the bat we should get a good idea there. How the Cubs picked in the past will change at least a bit and how much of that changes will be something I'm going to be following.

[Bertz]

3 hours ago, Jason Ross said:

The thing I am most excited about for this draft is the influence that Tyler Zombro will have on the process. Generally speaking, I think Kantrovitz and team have done a pretty good job in the draft. They have found value in the first almost every year (Jordan Wicks may be the one miss I blame them for? The 2020 draft feels like a harsh thing to pin on any org with the limited funds and scouting and sample size. And Wicks isn't dead yet, but he seems to be teetering into "didn't work out" territory more and more - and there were moments I saw what they did, so I'm not immune here). They have done well to identify value outside of the first round as well, even deep-cut picks. 

At the same time, I'm interested to see what Zombro adds to the draft room and what kinds of arms he's interested in. And I think that's going to be the biggest wrench in "what do the Cubs do?" this year. They clearly need a haul of pitching to infuse into the system, so right off the bat we should get a good idea there. How the Cubs picked in the past will change at least a bit and how much of that changes will be something I'm going to be following.

Yeah I'm really intrigued by the strategy piece for this upcoming draft.  I'm finding myself torn between: 

"The system needs lots of arms, we've got Zombro now so obviously let's do another 2022 draft"

and

"The team largely nailed the evaluation piece in 2022 and yet we're still not going to end up with much to show for it because atteition is such a horsefeathers, so why would we do that again?"

[CaliforniaRaisin]

45 minutes ago, Bertz said:

Yeah I'm really intrigued by the strategy piece for this upcoming draft.  I'm finding myself torn between: 

"The system needs lots of arms, we've got Zombro now so obviously let's do another 2022 draft"

and

"The team largely nailed the evaluation piece in 2022 and yet we're still not going to end up with much to show for it because atteition is such a horsefeathers, so why would we do that again?"

Haha, I'm at attrition is such a horsefeathers and pitching is so expensive to acquire, they need to do a 2022 draft like 2-3 straight years.

[Outshined_One]

1 hour ago, Bertz said:

"The team largely nailed the evaluation piece in 2022 and yet we're still not going to end up with much to show for it because atteition is such a horsefeathers, so why would we do that again?"

Simple, look to Jackson Ferris as the model: draft a highly regarded pitcher out of high school, watch him rock out his first season, trade him for a big MLB piece (preferably an underperforming bat with control) right before the pitcher crashes to earth.

Going to be awesome when the Cubs trade Kaleb Wing and Kane Kepley for someone like Jaren Durran this upcoming offseason.

[Bertz]

1 hour ago, CaliforniaRaisin said:

Haha, I'm at attrition is such a horsefeathers and pitching is so expensive to acquire, they need to do a 2022 draft like 2-3 straight years.

Ha!  I was thinking a compromise like take your favorite bat at 23 and then go all pitching from there but this is a fun turn into the skid

55 minutes ago, Outshined_One said:

Simple, look to Jackson Ferris as the model: draft a highly regarded pitcher out of high school, watch him rock out his first season, trade him for a big MLB piece (preferably an underperforming bat with control) right before the pitcher crashes to earth.

Going to be awesome when the Cubs trade Kaleb Wing and Kane Kepley for someone like Jaren Durran this upcoming offseason.

Yeah 2022 is so weird because in one sense they nailed it but in another sense it's looking pretty dire and in a 3rd sense like 70% of Michael Busch or whatever we want to credit to Ferris' specific trade value isn't the worst outcome from a draft even if it's paired with little else.

Right now I'm aghast at the idea of trading Wing instead of a bat but the numbers say trade 'em while you've got 'em.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Kiley McDaniel:

 

[Bertz]

Longenhagen had Gracia as the #2 guy in the draft coming into the year.  It would be very Kantrovitz to just grab a guy like that who is falling.

[JBears79]

47 minutes ago, Bertz said:

Longenhagen had Gracia as the #2 guy in the draft coming into the year.  It would be very Kantrovitz to just grab a guy like that who is falling.

Makes sense considering their strategy with Conrad last year. Personally, I always like the idea of going position player first and then loading up with arms the rest of the way with a couple high schoolers.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

57 minutes ago, Bertz said:

Longenhagen had Gracia as the #2 guy in the draft coming into the year.  It would be very Kantrovitz to just grab a guy like that who is falling.

Even if Gracia doesn’t fall that far, Kiley has Bell going the pick before,  Kuhns the pick after and Townsend 3 picks after. Lot of options.

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

11 hours ago, CaliforniaRaisin said:

Even if Gracia doesn’t fall that far, Kiley has Bell going the pick before,  Kuhns the pick after and Townsend 3 picks after. Lot of options.

If both Bell and Townsend are avail for the Cubs to take, that's a really tough choice for me

[JD94]

Another Ole Miss pitcher to keep an eye on is Taylor Rabe. He is really coming on. It’s 96-98. I’ve seen him hit 99 this season as well. Very polished pitcher. Changeup, cutter, slider. He doesn’t walk people (8 walks in 56 innings this year). He’s a late bloomer, but really flashing. He’s currently pitching against Alabama tonight: 5 IP / 0 hits / 0 runs / 1 BB / 11 K’s. That’s coming off a 14 strikeout performance against Texas A&M last weekend. He did have one inning that got away from him last weekend, but he’s special. 
 

2 years ago Ole Miss hired Joel Mangrum from the Guardians organization to be their pitching coach and the results are phenomenal. As somebody that is an Ole Miss season ticket holder, I’ve witnessed it first hand. He’s really getting results in a short period of time.