Jason Ross

The Chicago Cubs selected Myles Bailey with the 75th pick in the 2026 MLB Draft Saturday afternoon. Bailey is a first baseman, formerly of the University of Florida State. The slot value for the pick in the MLB draft is $1,120,900. The Cubs were awarded the 75th pick in the draft for losing Kyle Tucker to the Los Angeles Dodgers in free agency. Last year, Bailey hit .363 with 13 home runs. He was ranked #83 on MLB Pipeline, unranked (given a 40 FV) on Eric Logenhagen of FanGraphs' "The Board", and #67 according to Baseball America. Using Jamie Cameron's consensus board, he was our No. 96th-ranked prospect. Jamie had this to say about him: "Bailey has the best raw power in the entire class. His average EV and EV90 are top of the scale. He was torching non-conference play to the tune of 13 home runs (a .913 SLG) in his first 26 games before a serious ankle injury resulted in surgery and the end of his season. Raw power isn't Bailey's only asset. He's a good athlete and has an excellent approach. He followed up a 13.7 BB% in 2025 with a 28.7 BB% in 2026. Additionally, he just doesn't expand the strike zone, with a 98th percentile chase rate. The profile does come with serious swing and miss concerns, however. Bailey registered a K% over 30% in 2025 and has some of the worst whiff and in-zone whiff percentages in D1 baseball. He's likely destined to stick at 1B in pro ball. He has an unusually diverse range of outcomes for a college prospect, but the power upside is huge." Strengths Power, power, and more power; the kid has thump. The kid has so much thump that Baseball America ranked his power tops in college baseball this year with other hitters such as Ace Reece, Logan Hughes and Ryder Helfrick, who all went above him in the draft as first-round selections. His 13 home runs on the year might not sound impressive until you realize he missed much of the year due to injury and only played in 26 games. That’s an insane amount of in-game power. Bailey has a violent left-handed swing and uses his 6’4” frame with every ounce of his body, but the swing is controlled violence. It doesn’t have a ton of movement or extras in it. It’s a small leg kick and not a lot of hand loading. This is good; coming to the pros from a mechanically strong position is excellent. We’ll get into his issues later, but one thing to note: Bailey strikes out a lot. The positive? Roboscout, which uses statcast data, including whiff rates, chase rates, etc., thinks that Myles Bailey is a stud. They rank him as the second-best hitter in the 2026 draft from the college ranks and has him projected as a 120 wRC+ hitter behind just Daniel Jackson. Last year, Roboscout loved Andrew Fischer despite the K-issues and the Brewers seem to have a bit of a steal with him. This is much more of a “fun” scouting than one we should bank too hard into, but it’s a fun thought and shows just how good the pop is. Approach-wise, Bailey has started to take a ton of walks. Some of this is likely college pitchers scared to pitch anything within a mile of the hitter, but you cannot ignore the improvement. Bailey walked 32 times in 245 PA’s as a freshman, but saw his walks balloon to 30 in just 122 PA’s as a sophomore. There’s whiffs, but there’s multiple ways he can impact an offense as well, which helps to mitigate that. Another thing to note: Bailey is very young. He played 56 games during his age-19 freshman season at FSU and hit 19 tanks. He is only draft eligible because he’s just celebrated a birthday making him eligible for the draft. Because of the age, you can be a little more patient and likely think that there’s the possibility to maturity at the plate naturally to help smooth some of the rough edges. Weaknesses The biggest issue (as alluded to earlier) in Myles Bailey's profile is that for all of the power he has, he has a ton of swing and miss in his game. During his freshman campaign, the slugger whiffed 76 times in just 56 games. And while the K issues got better this year, he still struck out 30 times in 26 games. Kids with potential 70-grade power don’t sit around the draft until the 75th pick unless there’s a red flag, and the contact issues are very real. As much as I want to see these cleaned up, whiff issues can be some of the hardest clean-ups out there. It’s likely this will be his Achilles’ heel. On top of that, while Bailey moves well for his size, he’s going to be limited to first base. What this means is that his pathway to MLB relevancy is narrow, even before we worry about the whiffs. For him to maintain any sort of prospect status, he basically has to show up to the organization and never stop hitting. That’s such an impossibly high bar to clear, but it’s the life of first base prospects and just comes with the territory. Overall Myles Bailey is a big swing of a prospect, both in the literal sense and the figurative one. The best version of Bailey is a three-outcome slugger who hits 30 or more home runs, strikes out a bunch and walks a ton. The worst version of Myles Bailey is a guy who strikes out a ton and never makes it past Knoxville at Double-A. There’s a massive variance in outcomes, but he’s a fun lottery ticket regardless. Bailey will likely require more than slot to sign, as well. Despite being ranked a little lower from some publications than where the Cubs snatched him up at, he’s very young and has the leverage. We shouldn’t worry about him signing, as the Cubs’ wouldn’t have picked him if that was an issue, but if you were hoping the org was going to grab some guys later with major over-slots, they probably won’t get any help doing that with this pick.

The Chicago Cubs selected Cade Townsend with the 23rd pick in the 2026 MLB Draft Saturday afternoon. Townsend is a starting pitcher, formerly of the University of Ole Miss. The slot value for the 23rd pick in the MLB draft is $3,947,600. Last year, Townsend had a 4.64 ERA. He was ranked #35 on MLB Pipeline, #18 on Eric Logenhagen of FanGraphs' "The Board", and #29 according to Baseball America. Using Jamie Cameron's consensus board, he was our No. 23-ranked prospect. Jamie had this to say about him: "Townsend was a solid prep prospect ahead of the 2024 draft, cracking T200 and T300 lists, but made it to campus at Ole Miss. After splitting time between starting and relieving in his freshman season, he entered 2026 strictly as a starter. It was an explosive start to his season. In his first 35 innings pitched, he managed a 2.32 FIP, striking out over 32% of hitters and walking just 4.8%. Unfortunately, he left his fifth start with shoulder discomfort, missing some time on the shelf. It's an appealing fastball that sits 93-95 mph but can grab 98 mph. It has good carry and plays best at the top of the strike zone. It's supplemented by a nasty curveball, a hammer with a ton of drop that he imparts upwards of 3,000 rpms of spin onto with consistency. Rounding out Townsend's arsenal is a cutter that sits in the high 80s, a slider, and a changeup with good fade. The missed time and smaller frame might give some teams pause, but Townsend has a diverse, exciting arsenal. He managed a 4.13 FIP with a 31.9 K% and a much improved 8 BB% in 64 IP in 2026. He should go well in July despite not pitching in the Rebs Omaha run." Strengths Cade Townsend’s strength lies directly in his stuff. Throwing a 94+mph fastball that shows cut-ride tendencies, he is a pitcher after the Cubs’ hearts. He relies on a fastball, sinker, and cutter combo, which the organization tends to adore. He can run the heater upwards of 98mph despite a smaller frame and can blow hitters away with the offering. Beyond just velocity, however, Townsend can spin the hell out of the baseball. He throws a curveball, a slider, and a split-finger offering. All have gotten pretty strong reviews and look as though they are at least MLB-quality pitches while his curveball could be a plus (or better offering). According to the MLB.com Pipeline scouting report on Townsend, “He also ratchets up the rpms on a pair of power breaking balls, with both his low-80s downer curveball and upper-80s slider with nice depth grading as plus offerings, as does his cutter that averages 90 mph." Another aspect I really like: the mentality. He’s got a lot of energy and he pitches with it. He’s not asleep on the mound; he’s active and has a “come get it” frame of mind. He’s got the makings of a fan favorite from this aspect, which is one of those intangibles that can sometime separate “just a guy” from “a dude." Weaknesses Townsend’s main issue is rooted in his stature; he’s just not a very big pitcher. Standing 6'1” and 185lbs, he’s not a dominant figure on the mound. I don’t mean to short-shame him (frankly, I wish I was 6’0” myself) but because he doesn’t bring a massive frame to play, he has to add a little extra “oomph” through his delivery and this can cause the control to fall off at times. Eric Logenhagen had this to say about his control: “For all of Townsend’s enviable physical gifts, the effort in his delivery, and particularly the head whack at finish, is going to make it tough for him to hit spots. He throws strikes, but not precise ones, and his command tends to dip relatively early in outings…” So, when people mention the frame as an issue, this is generally why. He has a full-motion delivery and cleaning that up will be important for the Cubs. It’s not an impossible one, as he saw his control improve throughout the 2026 season at Ole Miss, but it wasn’t ever great, and he’ll need to keep working on that. One other point of concern: He’s a pitcher with an injury history. As Cub fans right now, we don’t need to be reminded of pitchers’ who are hurt, but Cade Townsend did spend some time in 2026 on the shelf with a shoulder injury. It doesn’t mean impending elbow surgery, but all things considered, you wish he didn’t have it on the record. Overall This is a very nice pick with the 23rd selection, all things considered. Teams should never draft for need, and while the Cubs need pitchers, I don’t see Townsend as a need-first pick. He’s got a lot of what the Cubs’ pitching developmental team likes: fastball with carry and cut-ride principles and a good curveball. There is upside with Townsend. I’ll hesitate to say it’s top-of-the-rotation upside, as many things need to come together for that, but he looks like a pitcher who has stuff for days and that’ll play up. If he can work on the control, he’ll be someone you can dream of being a mainstay in a playoff rotation, but shoulder issues and that command could force him to be a leverage reliever. While I hesitate to give a one-to-one comparison, when I see Townsend on the mound, I'm reminded a bit of another Cade in Cade Horton. They have a similar mentality, and have some comparable skills when it comes to pitch shape and breaking balls. If you went into this draft wanting an upside arm, the Cubs got one, albeit one with some things to clean up (which should be expected when you're drafting a kid 23rd and not first).