'Energizing': Cubs fully operational for Draft

CHICAGO -- When the Cubs selected shortstop Ed Howard with their top pick in the MLB Draft last summer, it was one of the day's feel-good stories in baseball. Chicago picked a hometown kid, and a past Little League World Series hero.

Now, Dan Kantrovitz, the Cubs' vice president of scouting, can finally watch Howard play in games.

"It's kind of backwards in terms of what normally happens," Kantrovitz said with a smile. "But it's equally as exciting. He's electric."

A year later, there is more normalcy in every Draft room around baseball after the COVID-19 pandemic forced a dramatic reorganization of the event in 2020. In that sense, it will be the first normal Draft for Kantrovitz, who is in his second year at the helm of the process.

Kantrovitz and his scouts have still incorporated Zoom interviews into their pre-Draft approach, but they have been back in the field to see players in person again. Rather than relying on data from previous years, Kantrovitz can use his Draft models to help the Cubs tackle a board that begins with pick No. 21 in the first round.

"It is energizing. It feels real right now," Kantrovitz said. "This is the first time that we've had our entire scouting department together since last January. So, it's definitely starting to feel real. Being in the war room [this week], talking about players and debating with all the scouts, everybody was pretty thirsty to do that. Not just scouts, but I think the entire front office. It's a fun time for the organization."

Day 1 of the 2021 Draft will take place live from Denver’s Bellco Theatre on Sunday. It will feature the first 36 picks and will air on MLB Network and ESPN at 6 p.m. CT. Day 2, which will span rounds 2-10, begins at noon CT on Monday. The Draft will conclude with rounds 11-20 on Tuesday, starting at 11 a.m. CT. MLB.com will simulcast MLB Network’s broadcast and provide live coverage on all three days.

To view when teams pick, the Top 200 Prospects list, mock drafts from analysts Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo, scouting video and more, visit to MLB.com/Draft. Follow @MLBDraft and @MLBDraftTracker on Twitter to see what Draft hopefuls, clubs and experts are saying and to get each pick as it’s made.

In summary
The Cubs have four picks within the first 125 selections in this year's MLB Draft. That includes choices at No. 21, 56, 93 and 123. It will be the second MLB Draft with Kantrovitz overseeing the process as Chicago looks to replenish a farm system that thinned in recent years.

"The way I look at the Draft," Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said, "the best drafting teams just stack one good pick and one good decision on top of another, year after year. And when you do that, you end up with a really quality system."

State of the system
The Cubs have four Top 100 prospects per MLB Pipeline (LHP Brailyn Marquez, No. 44; OF Brennen Davis, No. 45; C Miguel Amaya, No. 70; and SS Cristian Hernandez, No. 98). Hernandez was a high-profile international signing in January. Last year's top Draft pick, Howard, ranks No. 5 on the Cubs' Top 30 list and should be knocking on the Top 100 door in the near future.

Overall, the Cubs' system ranks in the lower half of baseball, but the organization is working to build up its prospect depth as it plans for the next core. As an example, Chicago added four young Top 30 prospects (shortstop Reginald Preciado, No. 10; outfielder Owen Caissie, No. 11; shortstop Yeison Santana, No. 18; and outfielder Ismael Mena, No. 23) in the trade that sent ace Yu Darvish to the Padres last winter.

What they're saying
"If you ask any of our scouts, they probably have a guy that maybe they hope ends up being our pick at 21. But, having done this now for 15 years, that player rarely ends up being the guy that you take with your first pick. Especially picking at 21, it doesn't matter too much who we want. What matters most is who's available at that pick at 21. There's going to be 20 players that go off the board before us, so we don't necessarily control our own destiny when it comes to who are options will be. I think everybody, including me, probably has a favorite or two. But it wouldn't make sense for me to say who that player is before the Draft." -- Kantrovitz

Who might they take?
Callis wrote in a recent mock draft on MLB.com that the Cubs are "considering every demographic" for their top selection. That fits with the best-player-available approach, especially when talking about a pick that falls in the bottom third of the first round.

Callis has pointed to prep outfielder Will Taylor (Dutch Forks HS in Irmo, S.C.) and University of Florida outfielder Jud Fabian as possibilities, along with high school lefty Anthony Solometo (Bishop Eustace Prep in Pennsauken Township, N.J.). Mayo has mentioned prep third baseman Colson Montgomery (Southridge HS in Huntingburg, Ind.) and UC Santa Barbara righty Michael McGreevy as Cubs targets.

Money matters
Each Draft pick in the first 10 rounds comes with an assigned value, with the total for a club's selections equaling what it can spend in those rounds without incurring a penalty. If a player taken in the top 10 rounds doesn't sign, his pick's value gets subtracted from his team's pool.

The pools for all 30 clubs total $265,769,400 in a Draft that has been reduced to 20 rounds from the 40 called for in the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Last year, the industry spent a total of $238,092,829 on a five-round Draft. In 2019, teams set a record with $316,560,984 in Draft bonuses, including $55,896,284 after the 10th round.

The Cubs have a pool of $6,779,400 to spend, including $3,132,300 to spend on their first selection.

• Here are '21 Draft bonus pools, pick values

Trend watch
Last year's Draft was the first with Kantrovitz leading the Cubs' process, and the pandemic created a substantial information gap for an abbreviated five-round event. Under the circumstances, Chicago leaned on tools and cast a wide net in terms of player type. There was the highly touted prep shortstop (Howard), a power-based college bat (outfielder Jordan Nwogu), a pair of high-octane collegiate relievers (lefties Burl Carraway and Luke Little) and a high school pitcher (Koen Moreno).

Those picks provided a snapshot of Kantrovitz's style as the Cubs' Draft leader, but this year will give a more lengthy look at how the organization prioritizes players with more rounds and more information. What was clear, even in just a five-round format, was he was unafraid to take risks and pull from a wide range of player types.

Rising fast
Last year's shortened MLB Draft created a situation where teams put on recruiting hats to target undrafted free agents who could pick and choose where to sign. Kantrovitz said the Cubs had their eye on drafting Oklahoma State righty Ben Leeper, but wound up considering him like a "sixth rounder" when the undrafted period began.

"He was probably our No. 1 target," Kantrovitz said.

The Cubs put together a personalized video and a player plan to help sell Leeper on the benefits of joining their organization. It worked and the pitcher has soared to Triple-A Iowa this year. Through 19 appearances between Double-A and Triple-A, Leeper had a 1.05 ERA with 40 strikeouts and nine walks in 25 2/3 innings. He features an upper-90s fastball with a wipeout slider.

"Not to take anything away from the players we drafted," Kantrovitz said, "but hopefully Ben's not the last success story there."

The last three top picks
2020: SS Ed Howard (Low-A Myrtle Beach)
2019: RHP Ryan Jensen (High-A South Bend)
2018: SS Nico Hoerner (Cubs)