Besides a couple of big power bats near the top, the Cubs focused heavily on pitching in this class with ten in a row from rounds three through twelve and another six in a row to close out the draft from the fifteenth round on. It was all about breaking balls in this class, with the Cubs looking less at pitchers who could run attack the top rail with explosive fastballs and more at guys who could spin the heck out of the ball. That adds a lot of relief risk to the class, especially with command not being a priority in the draftees, but it does create a lot of upside and possibly gives them quite a few future closer options.
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Note that the number before a player's name indicates their draft position. For example, "2-50" would indicate that a player was taken in the second round with the fiftieth overall pick.
1-23: RHP Cade Townsend, Mississippi
Slot value: $3.95 million. Signing bonus: $3.1 million ($847,600 below slot value).
My rank: #23. MLB Pipeline: #35. ESPN: #26.
The Cubs got quite a bargain bringing in one of the most talented college pitchers in the country for nearly a million dollars below slot value, just below the value of the #31 pick here at #23. Cade Townsend has been well-known to scouts since his prep days, when he had significant interest from MLB teams as a star at Santa Margarita Catholic HS in Southern California. He turned down offers and crossed the country to attend Ole Miss, where he flashed upside but pitched to a 6.35 ERA as a freshman in 2025. Townsend returned in 2026 looking like a more complete pitcher and dominated the Rebels' non-conference schedule (0.48 ERA, 32/4 K/BB in 18.2 IP over 4 starts), and while his SEC performance was more up and down, he still did more than enough for evaluators to push himself into the first round. The 6'1" righty sits in the mid 90's and touches 98 with ride through the zone, holding that velocity now better than he did in the past. He stands out most for his feel for secondaries, making the ball dance all around the zone with a full arsenal. He runs his cutter into the upper 80's to consistently stay off barrels, then slices it into a truer sweeper that looks plus in its own right. His curveball shows good depth and gives him yet another potential plus pitch, while his changeup plays closer to average. This is the pure stuff that can play at the top of a rotation, but Townsend has yet to fully put it together. He is throwing more strikes than in the past, dropping his walk rate from 13.1% as a freshman to 8.0% as a sophomore, though it is still more control than command and he can get hit in the zone. Townsend is very, very close to breaking through as a rotation force, and if the Cubs can unlock a little more life on his fastball while fine tuning that command a little further, it would make his breaking balls play up even further as hitters can't simply trust their hands to catch up to the above average velocity. I see this as great value near the back of the first round with massive savings to boot.
2-62: OF Caden Sorrell, Texas A&M
Slot value: $1.49 million. Signing bonus: $1.65 million ($162,800 above slot value).
My rank: #54. MLB Pipeline: #33. ESPN: #43.
Caden Sorrell was projected throughout the 20-40 range for much of the draft cycle, though I felt that was just a little bit rich for my taste and left just outside of my top fifty. The Cubs getting him here in the second round for a slightly over-slot bonus (roughly the value of pick #58) feels more like market value and I'd be much more comfortable rolling the dice here. Like Cade Townsend, Sorrell comes with massive upside, though he has a few more fatal flaws and comes with a wider range of outcomes. Both of his grandfathers played in the big leagues in the 1960's and 1970's, then he made a name for himself as a Dallas-Fort Worth high schooler in 2023 with top 100 interest. He made it to campus at Texas A&M and jumped into the starting lineup as a true freshman in 2024, then over the last two years he has really turned it on by slashing .340/.433/.757 with 35 home runs over 82 games despite missing significant time in 2025 with hamstring problems. Sorrell is a toolshed, to pit it lightly. Listed at 6'3", 210 pounds, he is packed with lean muscle which he channels into an explosive left handed swing to create plus raw power. He taps that power in games, recognizing mistake pitches and hammering them to the pull side or mishitting balls out to all fields even if he doesn't square it up. There are few players more exciting to watch connect with a baseball and Sorrell does it frequently, setting a career high with 23 home runs in 2026. The catch, of course, is contact. While he had no problem performing in college or even when isolated to just SEC play – where he hit .317/.399/.667 against some of the best arms in the country – the warning signs are there. Sorrell runs contact rates below 70% and struck out at a 22.9% clip in 2026, including 26.6% in SEC play, creating major questions as to whether he can catch up to advanced pro pitching. There is some tendency to chase in the profile, but the bigger issue is just the creation of holes in his left handed swing when he tries to blast balls out of the state. As has been emphasized, he has had little reason to adjust that approach thus far as he's always found a mistake pitch he can drive, but it will be a point of emphasis for the Cubs in pro ball. Defensively, Sorrell is a plus runner who has shown well the outfield, giving him a shot to play center field if we wanted to ignore the existence of Pete Crow-Armstrong for a minute. He certainly won't knock PCA out of center field, but the speed and plus arm could make him a plus defender in right. field. The ceiling on Sorrell is immense and if he takes a few large steps forward in the contact department, he could be a star in Chicago for a long time.
2C-75: 1B Myles Bailey, Florida State
Slot value: $1.12 million. Signing bonus: $1.9 million ($779,100 above slot value).
My rank: #83. MLB Pipeline: #83. ESPN: #88.
Well, speaking of power. If power was money, Myles Bailey would have enough to give every American one hundred dollars and still have enough left over to buy the Cubs. This is, to put it plainly, some of the biggest raw power in the entire draft, if not the biggest. Like Caden Sorrell, Bailey was a well-known prep with significant draft interest out of high school but made it to campus at Florida State, where he bopped 19 home runs and slashed an impressive .327/.441/.663 as a true freshman. He came out hammering in 2026, slashing a prime Barry Bonds-like .363/.582/.913 with 13 home runs in 26 games (an 81 home run pace over a 162 game season) before shattering his ankle against Duke at the end of March. Listed at 6'4", 255 pounds, Bailey looks every bit of it and the power is Earth-shattering. He uses his massive limbs to hammer balls in all directions, whether he's sending them to a different tax jurisdiction to the pull side or going halfway up the scoreboard in the opposite direction. Of course, the catch here just as with Sorrell is contact. He struck out at a high 31.0% rate as a freshman and dropped that to 24.6% as a sophomore, but that was mostly because pitchers were avoiding him and he walked 28.7% of the time. Even in ACC play against better pitching (albeit in just an eight game sample), that strikeout rate sat at a similar 26.3% but the walk rate was a gargantuan 34.2%. Bailey simple does not chase when pitchers refuse to challenge him, but when they do challenge him, they usually win in the zone. The Tallahassee native swings through a ton of hittable pitches with some of the lowest contact rates among drafted players, and big league pitchers will find plenty of holes inside that strike zone to exploit. Then the trade off becomes when pitchers don't win in the zone, the results are spectacular. In his tiny ACC sample in 2026, Bailey was performing much better than in 2025 and seemed to have gotten the swing and miss to at least a realistic level, and the Cubs are bought into those gains as real progress. If he can hit the ball just sometimes at the big league level, his propensity to walk could still keep his on-base percentages at a decent level while he threatens for as many home runs as he can make contact on, looking to Adam Dunn as his ceiling. While nobody is going to mistake the hulking slugger for Ozzie Smith out on the infield dirt, he can pick it pretty well for a guy his size and plays a decent first base. Bailey will likely be a net positive around the bag and could stave off becoming a DH for the first half of his career. His $1.9 million bonus was well above slot value, roughly the value of the #52 pick.
3-98: RHP Carson Jasa, Nebraska
Slot value: $800,000. Signing bonus: $750,000 ($50,000 below slot value).
My rank: unranked. MLB Pipeline: #173. ESPN: #166.
Carson Jasa is as good of a trajectory pick as you're going to find. Out of high school, he lacked any semblance of body control and was kept far away from the mound as a freshman. He improved his command from unplayable to merely well below average in 2025, earning eleven appearances (four starts) but battling that command in every one of them. He worked hard over the offseason and improved again in 2026, coming out as a full time starter and posting a 3.59 ERA and 117 strikeouts, the eighteenth most in the nation. The command was still below average, but he learned to work with it, keep his misses reasonable, and stay in competitive counts, helping his power stuff get to work. Jasa sits in the mid 90's with his fastball and touches 98 at peak, though like Cade Townsend back in the first round, the pitch can get straight. Also like Townsend, he has tremendous feel for spin with a pair of fall off the table breaking balls in his tight slider and hard downer curveball. Hitters struggle to track either of them and consistently swing through them even if they know they're coming. Jasa adds a changeup, but it's his fourth pitch. The 6'7" righty brings huge size to the table and works with a stiffer, tall and fall delivery that limits his extension. He still needs to work hard on his body control to get a little more athletic on the mound, hopefully helping to bring his command a little closer to average. Adding some life to his fastball would help too, and together he should have a chance to start. At present, his breaking ball-first arsenal and below average command profile more as a bullpen piece.
4-126: RHP Dylan Marionneaux, Northwestern State
Slot value: $609,200. Signing bonus: $600,000 ($9,200 below slot value).
My rank: unranked. MLB Pipeline: unranked. ESPN: unranked.
This one is a bit off the beaten path, with little information out there about Dylan Marionneaux. After showing up at Northwestern State throwing mid 80's, he has steadily improved each year dropping his ERA from 7.65 to 5.01 to 3.51 while upping his strikeout rate to 12.4% to 17.9% to 23.3%. The fastball now sits in the low 90's and touches 95 with some cut but otherwise ordinary shape, so rather than relying on the heater, he pitches off his glove side weapons. His cutter sits in the upper 80's and anchors his arsenal, while he can turn it into a nice little slider to miss bats, albeit not at high rates. He rounds it out with a changeup. Marionneaux's walk rate has improved every year as well, dropping from 11.4% to 10.4% to just 5.2% in 2026, going from a weakness to a weapon. The Baton Rouge-area native commands his modest arsenal well, not just his fastball but also his secondary pitches. Listed at 6'3", 170 pounds, he is very thin for a starting pitcher and will need to pack on a lot of good weight. He has a thinner build and may not ever have that workhorse frame, but bulking up a little could help him live closer to the mid 90's and help the fastball become a bigger part of his arsenal. He moves well on the mound and comes with nice sleeper upside for Chicago. Marionneaux had previously committed to Alabama out of the transfer portal but the Cubs bought him out with a much higher than expected bonus.
5-159: RHP Dylan Blomker, La Cueva HS [NM]
Slot value: $441,300. Signing bonus: $888,000 ($446,700 above slot value).
My rank: unranked. MLB Pipeline: unranked. ESPN: unranked.
Moving to the prep side, the Cubs went off the beaten path a little bit and pulled in a bit of a sleeper in the class. LSU did a fantastic job of getting talent to campus this fall, perhaps too good of a job with more stars than roster spots, and Dylan Blomker was one of the few (and one of the more unexpected) signees to go pro. Blomker has a low to mid 90's fastball that can hit 97 in short stints with nice riding action from a lower slot. His slider can be inconsistent but shows huge spin rates and frisbee action at its best, while hsi changeup gives him a firmer third option. The 6'3" righty has a great pitcher's frame with present strength and space to develop further, but his delivery can get rushed and his command is below average for now. He'll need significant refinement in pro ball, especially to iron out his mechanics and command, carrying significant reliever risk as a pitcher who may have to rely on a fastball/slider combination. The upside, though, is that of a mid rotation starter who can take his time working his way up through the system as he gradually tacks on polish to a really talented profile. The Albuquerque native signed for roughly twice his slot value, roughly the value of the #90 pick.
6-188: RHP Isaac Morton, Minnesota
Slot value: $344,400. Signing bonus: $344,400.
My rank: unranked. MLB Pipeline: #172. ESPN: #182.
Isaac Morton continues the theme of upward trajectory pitchers, even if he's currently out with injury. A high level prospect out of high school, he began his career at Texas A&M but pitched just 19.1 innings in two seasons as he battled injuries and a 20.6% walk rate. Transferring back home to Minnesota, he put it all together for a strong junior season in the Gopher rotation, posting a 3.26 ERA and cutting his walk rate in half. Unfortunately he was on his way to another gem against Nebraska, striking out seven of the first twelve batters he faced on the final weekend of Minnesota's season, before leaving with an arm injury that wound up requiring Tommy John surgery. He'll be out for much of 2027 as well, but the Cubs think he could get on the fast track to the big leagues once healthy. A true sidearmer, Morton sits in the mid 90's and touches 97 with his turbo sinker, forcing weak contact and creating a difficult look for hitters. His slider sweeps hard to the glove side with tremendous finish, an easy plus pitch, while his cutter splits the difference and his changeup is more of a fourth offering. The 6'3" righty has significantly improved his command at Minnesota but is still more control than command, so further refinement is definitely needed if he wants to stick in the rotation. Given that he'll be nearly 23 when he returns from surgery, the Cubs may want to fast track him as a reliever where his sidearm sinker/slider combination could be deadly. Morton has closer upside in that role if the stuff ticks up like it tends to do when starters move to the bullpen, a nice fallback should starting not work out.
9-277: RHP Chase Meyer, West Virginia
Slot value: $204,100. Signing bonus: $220,000 ($15,900 above slot value).
My rank: unranked. MLB Pipeline: unranked. ESPN: unranked.
The Cubs rolled the dice in the ninth round on another pitcher who has been off the mound but for very different reasons. Chase Meyer struggled mightily with command out of the West Virginia bullpen as a freshman, when he ran a 24% walk rate and an 8.38 ERA over thirteen appearances, then took a big step forward as a sophomore in 2025 as one of the Mountaineers' most trusted relievers. He was primed for another big season in 2026 when a locker room dispute led to his dismissal from the team early in the season, so he announced his intention to transfer to Arizona State and went to pitch in the MLB Draft League and Cape Cod League. The stuff is loud, and the Cubs hope to channel it in the right direction. His fastball sits in the mid 90's touching 98 with life, while his power breaking balls steal the show. Meyer's curveball and slider both look plus with high spin rates and sharp, late bite to miss a ton of bats. His changeup, like other pitchers in this Cubs class, is a fourth pitch. The 6'2" righty has below average command from an uptempo delivery and needs to significantly rein things in, especially if he wants to start in pro ball. Meyer more likely looks like a reliever long term, just as he was with West Virginia, but one with wicked stuff that could pitch in high leverage situations in Chicago.
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