With penchant for drafting position players, Cubs aim to invest more in pitching

CHICAGO -- The Cubs have established a strong track record when it comes to identifying position players in the Draft and developing those hitters in their system. That strength from a scouting standpoint has extended to trades that have brought core building blocks into the fold.

What the Cubs have struggled to do in recent years -- even stretching back before the team’s previous playoff-caliber group -- has been creating a deep pipeline of pitching prospects. They have reeled in impact arms at a few turns, but the overall pool of pitching depth has been thin. And that is something the organization is trying to correct.

“You can’t take good pitching, if you don’t take pitching,” said Cubs vice president of scouting Dan Kantrovitz, who sat down at Wrigley Field this past weekend to discuss the upcoming MLB Draft.

Kantrovitz said his group’s guiding “North Star” in strategy for the Draft has always been to try to find ways to maximize value without “leaking” future wins. That means taking the “best player available” on the board when a pick rolls around, whether that is a position player or a pitcher. Inherently, position players come with less risk, especially via the collegiate pool.

• Day 1 picks: 23, 62, 75, 98, 126
• Bonus pool allotment: $9,644,100 (19th among all pools)
• Last year’s top pick: Ethan Conrad, OF, pick 17 (first round) -- The Cubs felt they got a steal in Conrad, whose stock slipped some due to a left shoulder injury that cut a standout season with Wake Forest short. Conrad (22, and Cubs' No. 4 prospect) recently got his pro debut rolling in the Arizona Complex League after being slowed by a back issue.
• Breakout 2025 pick: Josiah Hartshorn, OF, pick 181 (sixth) -- Chicago invested a $2 million signing bonus to add Hartshorn, who has been one of the game’s standout prospects this season. The 19-year-old has soared to High-A South Bend and up Pipeline’s Top 100 list (No. 77).

The Cubs have taken a college bat in the first round of each of the last three Drafts -- Conrad in ‘25, Cam Smith in ‘24 and Matt Shaw in ‘23 -- and have leaned heavily on position players overall. While the first 10 picks in ‘25 were evenly split between arms and bats, nine of the first 11 picks in ‘24 were position players (with no pitcher taken until the sixth round).

Looking at the Cubs’ Top 30 prospects via Pipeline right now, righty Jaxon Wiggins (second-round compensatory pick in ‘23) represents the lone pitcher within the top nine. And as Chicago has battled a long list of injuries at the MLB level this season, there has been a shortage of in-house options to step up.

That is something the Cubs want to fix for the future.

“We go into our Draft being pretty agnostic of position player versus pitcher,” Kantrovitz said. “I think this year, the reality is we’re going to try to probably be a little less dogmatic about maybe sticking to that. And realizing that, practically, to get more good pitching, we just might have to take more pitching. I think that’s just the most obvious lever to pull.”

To be clear, this type of approach concerns the Draft as a whole, and not only the first round or early rounds. There is not a sudden change in philosophy mandating picking a pitcher with Chicago’s first selection. But as the Cubs study the names on the board and weigh the options against the available pool for signing bonuses, they may look to increase the volume of arms taken overall.

“I’d be reluctant to say, ‘We’re going to do this,’ going into the Draft,” Kantrovitz said. “But have we had extensive conversations about -- given the opportunity, given the chance that it doesn’t leak value -- how to increase our volume of pitching? I think that’s fair to say that’s a goal.”

Kantrovitz also noted that there has been more hands-on collaboration in identifying pitchers and specific traits (velocity and spin being “underlying pillars”) with Tyler Zombro, the Cubs’ vice president of pitching strategy, and the team’s pitching infrastructure. The Cubs also hired a new director of scouting operations, Kenta Nomoto, to help oversee the process.

There is a chance that Wiggins (working his way back from an arm issue) will impact the Cubs late this season. The Cubs also had a success story in Cade Horton, who was a first-rounder (No. 7 overall) in ‘22 and grew into the National League’s runner-up for the Rookie of the Year last season. Horton is currently out for the season following right elbow surgery in April.

Kantrovitz said the goal would be to have “your next future Cade Horton” in the system when setbacks happen at the big league level. Part of that process begins in the Draft.

“If you’re going to accelerate the amount of pitching that we have throughout the system via the Draft,” he said, “that’s just the most obvious place to start. Take more pitching. Invest more in it.”