For the last four years, the Chicago Cubs have leaned into drafting college players in the first round.
It’s already started to pay off. For instance, 2021 first-round pick Jordan Wicks, a left-handed pitcher, has already made his Major League debut.
Cade Horton, their 2022 first-rounder out of Oklahoma, is with Triple-A Iowa but is out for the season with an injury. The plan is for him to challenge for a spot on the Major League roster next year.
Last year’s first-round pick, Maryland infielder Matt Shaw, was just promoted to Triple-A and played in the MLB Futures Game last month.
Last month, the Cubs selected Florida State’s Cam Smith in the first round. They signed the power hitter to a $5 million bonus and assigned him to Class-A Myrtle Beach. But he has the talent to move quickly through the system.
The Cubs are tracking toward missing the playoffs and getting a mid-first round pick. Bleacher Report recently put together a mock draft for 2025 and projected the Cubs will break their streak of college players and opt for a prep pitcher — Seth Hernandez from Corona, Calif.
The Cubs selected No. 12 overall in this mock.
He recently caught the attention of MLB scouts and fans alike after he threw a 100 mph fastball while pitching in the Area Code Games, a popular tournament for college and pro scouts.
He’s already committed to play college baseball at Vanderbilt, but he has the make-up to bypass the college ranks and head straight to the pros. Some consider him to be the best prep pitching prospect in the draft.
What scouts like, per B/R, is that he already has a pretty clean make-up for a prep pitcher. Along with the fastball, he boasts quality command and mechanics. He’s also developed an above-average change-up.
Teams that pick Hernandez may be intrigued by the fact that he can play in the field, too. Perfect Game lists him as a corner infielder and outfielder. He played in Perfect Game’s 2024 All-America Classic.
The last prep player the Cubs selected in the first round was Ed Howard, a shortstop from Mount Carmel High School in Chicago. Howard is still with the Cubs at their High-A affiliate in South Bend.
Chicago hasn’t taken a prep pitcher in the first round since 2012, when it picked Paul Blackburn out of Heritage High School in Brentwood, Calif. That was a compensatory first-rounder. Blackburn is now pitching for the New York Mets.
