The 2024 MLB Draft is now over, and the important thing is that there are 20 new members of the Cubs family. The Cubs had a well-balanced draft, with nine pitchers (six right-handers and thee left-handers) and eleven position players. There were seven infielders, two outfielders and two catchers.
There were 16 four-year college players, one junior college player and three high school players.
The 20 newest Cubs are:
Cam Smith. Third baseman. Florida State. DOB:02/22/03. B:R, T:R
Cole Mathis. Third baseman. College of Charleston. DOB:07/25/03. B:R, T:R.
Ronny Cruz. Shortstop. Miami Christian School (FL). DOB:08/24/06. B:S. T:R.
Ty Southisene. Shortstop. Basic HS (NV). DOB:07/08/05. B:R, T:R.
Ariel Armas. Catcher. University of San Diego. DOB:11/29/02. B:R, T:R.
Ryan Gallagher. Right-handed pitcher. UC-Santa Barbara. DOB:01/19/03.
Ivan Brethowr. Outfielder. UC-Santa Barbara. DOB:02/27/03. B:R, T:R.
Edgar Alvarez. First baseman. Nicholls State (LA). DOB:02/19/01. B:L, T:R.
Brooks Caple. Right-handed pitcher. Lamar University (TX). DOB:08/23/02.
Matt Halbach. Third baseman. UC-San Diego. DOB:01/17/03. B:R, T:R.
Eli Lovich. Outfielder. Blue Valley West HS (KS). DOB:08/02/05. B:L, T:L
Daniel Avitia. Right-handed pitcher. Grand Canyon University. DOB:05/16/03.
Evan Aschenbeck. Left-handed pitcher. Texas A&M. DOB:06/26/01.
Cameron Sisneros. First baseman. East Tennessee State. DOB:06/01/01. B:L, T:L.
Hayden Frank. Left-handed pitcher. Lipscomb University. DOB:12/16/02.
Christian Gordon. Left-handed pitcher. Virginia Commonwealth. DOB:01/22/01
Ben Johnson. Right-handed pitcher. Georgia Southern. DOB:09/20/01.
Thomas Mangus. Right-handed pitcher. Navarro College (TX). DOB:06/18/03.
Owen Ayers. Catcher. Marshall University. DOB:06/07/01. B:S, T:R.
Brayden Risedorph. Right-handed pitcher. Indiana. DOB:07/30/03
I’ve already written up my thoughts on the Day 1 picks and the Day 2 picks. I’m not going to repeat myself here. As far as the Day 3 picks go, there’s a lot less information available on them. But I will share what I have been able to find out about these picks.
The Cubs usually take a tough-sign high school player with the 11th-round pick and offer them whatever bonus pool money they saved over the first ten rounds. They did that last year with Zyhir Hope, who was one of the two players the Cubs sent to Los Angeles in the Michael Busch trade. This year’s version of that is Eli Lovich, a tall and lanky outfielder (6’4”, 175) that needs to fill out some. He’s a long-term project, but he’s very athletic and he’s got some power upside. He also pitched in high school and some teams liked him better as a pitcher, so there’s a fallback option if he doesn’t hit.
The Cubs took Daniel Avitia in the 19th round in 2021 and he didn’t sign. There must have been no hard feelings because a player has to consent to being drafted by the same team a second time. His fastball sits low-90s that he combines with a good, low-80s change. Avitia’s brother David is a catcher currently playing for the South Bend Cubs.
Aschenbeck was the closer for the College World Series runners-up Aggies. He’s a throwback closer who doesn’t throw hard but relies on deception and command. College hitters couldn’t touch him — he was NCAA Stopper of the Year with a 1.78 ERA—but the jury is still out on whether he can get professional hitters out.
When the 14th-round pick, Cameron Sisneros, was announced, there were people in the comments throwing out a Daniel Vogelbach comp. Sisneros isn’t quite as big and immobile as Vogelbach, but he is a big left-handed 1B/DH type who has shown great power (23 home runs in 56 games) and terrific contract rates with just 20 strikeouts and 49 walks. So yeah, he homered more than he struck out. He was the Southern Conference Player of the Year this season. One downside is that he hasn’t played in any wooden bat showcases, so we’re a bit in the dark on how he’ll do in the pros.
Hayden Frank is a big (6’5”) left-hander who did well in the Cape Cod League both this year and last. He only pitched five games for Lipscomb this year—I assume there’s was an injury there but I can’t find out anything on that. In any case, he’s healthy now since he finished the season with Lipscomb and pitched in the Cape this summer.
Christian Gordon is a fifth-year senior. He struck out 102 batters in 79⅔ innings this spring for VCU. I found some scouting reports on him when he was taken out of high school in the 38th round by the Pirates in 2019, but I’m going to assume those are out of date.
Eighteenth-round pick Thomas Mangus is Cubs pick most likely to not sign. He’s a junior college pitcher with a commitment to Oklahoma. He’s got a 91-94 mph fastball that can touch 97. He’s also got a sweeper/slider in the low-80s and a 83-84 split. Mangus also has size and strength to start.
Brayden Risedorph is a reliever who relies on his four-seam and two-seam fastballs as well as a change. He’s a sophomore-eligible draftee who, frankly, had a pretty terrible 2024 after a solid freshman campaign. The big issue is that he struggled to throw strikes and gave up too many long balls as a sophomore. He’s young enough that he might return to college and try his luck in the draft again next season.
I don’t have much beyond stats for Ben Johnson and Owen Ayers. Johnson started and relieved at Georgia Southern. His stuff looks hittable from the numbers. Ayers is a switch-hitting catcher who hit .292/.385/.519 with eight home runs for Marshall this season.
The Cubs certainly took aim at their third base issues in this draft, with Smith, who could follow the path of Matt Shaw and make it to Double-A by the end of this year. Next season seems a bit aggressive for Smith to make the majors, but not impossible. If everything goes according to schedule, Smith could be in Chicago by 2026.
On top of that, the Cubs announced Mathis, who mostly played first base at Charleston, as a third baseman. He did play some third in college, but he was primarily a first baseman. There are also many scouts who think Cruz is destined for third base, although Cubs scouting director Dan Kantrovitz said that the Cubs think he’ll remain at short. Halbach is another guy who has played both first and third in college, but he’s more of a longer term project and a longshot anyways.
The other thing is that this is widely perceived to be a weak draft, especially with high school players. I really hate to say that because we really don’t know how a draft will shake out for about five years, but the general consensus is that the talent pool is shallow and there were few outstanding prospects at the top of the draft. There were certainly enough decent college prospects to fill out the first round — Cam Smith is a legitimate first-round pick. Last year was considered an exceptionally strong and deep draft. For example, the Cubs took Shaw with the 13th pick of the first round last year. Were he in this year’s draft, he likely would have gone somewhere between four and eight. And after the first round this year, the talent thinned out quickly.
The Cubs seemed to approach this dilemma by avoiding high school players, except for Cruz, Southisene and Lovich, who went in the 3rd, 4th and the traditional overslot 11th round. The other thing they seemed to do is place a lot of emphasis on how players did in the wooden-bat summer leagues, in particular the Cape Cod League. It’s a widely-held belief that there was something screwy with either the balls or the bats in Division I baseball this year, so the Cubs went with a lot of guys who demonstrated their ability with wooden bats — or pitching against wooden bats. There are a couple of exceptions to that strategy, but for the most part, the Cubs grabbed guys who did well in the Cape.
Finally, the Cubs are very much an analytics-driven organization. While they don’t discount the observations of traditional scouts, they like guys whose numbers like exit velocity match up with what the scouts are seeing. They didn’t draft any real velocity-monster pitchers, but they also didn’t take a pitcher until the sixth round. I don’t think there were many of those left on the board by then. At least not ones that would sign for what the Cubs could offer from their bonus pool.
Still, all 20 of these draftees have a chance to make it to the majors. Some certainly have a much better chance than others, but they’ve all got a chance. The Cubs are pretty good about letting everyone in their system play and they reward them when they produce, no matter what their initial draft position or signing bonus was. We know that the vast majority of them won’t make it — baseball is hard. But if the Cubs get even one good everyday player or starting pitcher out of this draft, then it was a success.
In any case, follow along with the Minor League Wrap as these 20 players chase their dreams. And give them a big welcome to the Cubs family.