Congratulations to the Chicago Cubs, who spent last season discovering exciting new and innovative ways to lose baseball games.
The year was such a disaster that by September, the Cubs essentially looked at the major league roster and said, “What if we simply stopped pretending to care?” Established players mysteriously found themselves in AAA, lineups became borderline performance art, and suddenly draft positioning became significantly more important than concepts like “competitive integrity.”
And honestly? It worked.
Picking fifth in this draft is a massive outcome for a franchise that desperately needed impact talent after an offense that ranked somewhere between “painfully mediocre” and “actively offensive to baseball itself.” Chicago finished near the bottom of basically every meaningful offensive category, which becomes even more impressive when you realize some teams were actually trying to tank on purpose.
The four obvious blue-chip names are gone now — Kerry Wood, Roy Halladay, Carlos Beltran, and Javier Vazquez — leaving the Cubs staring at the next clear-cut elite bat on the board:
Eric Chavez.
And frankly, this fit makes far too much sense.
Chavez is only 19 years old and technically playable already, which is always funny because baseball people love saying “technically playable” about teenagers as if we’re discussing a backup toaster. But the real excitement here is what happens once he fully develops.
The upside is absurd.
We’re talking about a third baseman with elite contact potential, legitimate middle-of-the-order power, and premium defense at the hot corner. Fully realized, he profiles just a notch below Scott Rolen — and I mean a microscopic notch below him. We’re talking “arguing over decimal points at 2 AM” levels of separation.
That’s a franchise cornerstone.
And for Chicago specifically, the fit becomes even more terrifying.
Imagine an infield featuring Mike Piazza, Jose Vidro, and Eric Chavez together long-term. Then sprinkle in Jeff Cirillo at shortstop because apparently the Cubs are trying to construct an infield entirely out of players who accidentally hit .320 every season.
That’s not just good. That’s obnoxious.
Potentially the best infield in the Federal League if development breaks correctly.
And considering Chicago spent last season rolling Scott Cooper out at third base while the offense collectively lit itself on fire, this selection feels almost unfairly clean. It addresses a major weakness while simultaneously giving the organization another foundational bat to build around as they crawl back toward relevance.
The Cubs needed offense. They needed star power. They needed someone capable of changing the shape of their lineup for the next decade.
Easy call.
PICK #5
Chicago Cubs select 3B Eric Chavez