2026 MLB Draft

[Jason Ross]

Not "Cubs" related but draft related: Just Baseball dropped their top-250:
https://www.justbaseball.com/mlb-draft/2026-mlb-draft-top-250-prospects/#entry-225319

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

How long away from the surgery is he?

[CaliforniaRaisin]

On 6/17/2026 at 1:48 PM, CaliforniaRaisin said:

 

 

[CaliforniaRaisin]

4 hours ago, Tangled Up in Plaid said:

How long away from the surgery is he?

May 2025

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[Outshined_One]

I'm coming around on the idea of drafting Wiggins as an underslot and then pushing hard for overslots later in the draft.  The recent MLB proposal to neuter the draft makes me think some of the more committed HS kids might be more inclined to sign than in past years.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[CaliforniaRaisin]

The Cubs just don’t draft enough pitching (admittedly they also draft with bottom-5/bottom-10 bonuses every year).

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

They have a Mis clone in the minors?

[CaliforniaRaisin]

21 minutes ago, Tangled Up in Plaid said:

They have a Mis clone in the minors?

I think Lance is a bit over the top on Letson but he’s a good prospect.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[Jason Ross]

On 6/25/2026 at 7:26 PM, CaliforniaRaisin said:

 

Seen enough Cubs/Jackson to think there's some smoke there. With that said, he didn't really perform well on the Cape, which would be a bit of a different draft direction for the team. 

[Outshined_One]

The Cubs have been sneaky good at developing catchers for awhile (Amaya, Contreras, Castillo), and they have another in the pipeline who will probably stick in the majors (Ayers), so I would trust them with a pick like Jackson, but it also doesn't really excite me and also would suggest a different direction for how they approach the position since they don't typically invest high picks in catching.

[Jason Ross]

Carlos Collazo of BA had his 5.0 Mock drop today. 

A few other names of relevancy:
24. Taylor Rabe
26. Cade Townshend 
28. Zion Rose
29. Teagan Kuhns
32. Hunter Deitz 
37. Daniel Jackson 

[CaliforniaRaisin]

2 hours ago, Outshined_One said:

The Cubs have been sneaky good at developing catchers for awhile (Amaya, Contreras, Castillo), and they have another in the pipeline who will probably stick in the majors (Ayers), so I would trust them with a pick like Jackson, but it also doesn't really excite me and also would suggest a different direction for how they approach the position since they don't typically invest high picks in catching.

From what I’ve gathered, Kantrovitz’ draft model de-values 1st round catchers.

[Bertz]

7 minutes ago, CaliforniaRaisin said:

From what I’ve gathered, Kantrovitz’ draft model de-values 1st round catchers.

I mean, feels like it probably should?  Once a decade there's a Posey or a Rutschman but in between there's mounds of Henry Davis, Joey Bart, Kevin Parada types.

If you told me that college catcher was a worse performing draft demographic than high school pitcher I'd probably believe you.

[Outshined_One]

Just now, CaliforniaRaisin said:

From what I’ve gathered, Kantrovitz’ draft model de-values 1st round catchers.

It's actually not a bad approach.  I'll grant that it's one thing if you're talking about a guy like Schwarber who has the kind of bat that will play anywhere, who was not seriously considered a catcher when drafted, and would have been worth the #4 overall pick even if he were a 1B/OF, but catchers are just...weird.

I've been amateurishly following Cubs prospects for 20+ years now and, while I have a vague grasp on a lot of other stuff, catching development has just been a complete enigma for me to understand.  It's the one position that doesn't make much sense to me because there are so many variables that go into the position, because catchers tend to be complete weirdos compared to other positions on the diamond (in a good way, usually), and because even the freaking rules applicable to catchers seem to be constantly evolving.  I can't even tell you what the Cubs' model is when it comes to developing catchers other than "middling dude who's old for A-ball starts hitting the holy crap out of the ball," and it seems to work!  It's why someone like Owen Ayers is both a complete shock to me and also completely unsurprising, because *of course* an older 19th round catcher would do something like this!

Occasionally you see a high draft pick at catcher work out, but yeah, maybe there's something to that approach that's worked for the Cubs.