How high of a draft pick could the Chicago Cubs nab next season?

Sure, this may seem like a silly sentiment seeing as the Chicago Cubs have gutted their squad and have done their best to emulate the Cleveland Indians from Major League, but there is still a chance for the Cubs to win some ballgames in the same fashion as what went down Saturday night. They’ve got some interesting and productive players despite the deluge of losses, and those players are all that stands between the Cubs and a higher draft pick in 2022.

The question, and it really is the only question left for the Cubs to answer this season (as long as you don’t consider Patrick Wisdom close enough for NL Rookie of the Year or give Kyle Hendricks a shot at 20 wins), how far up the draft board can they climb with what’s left of the season and with the teams already “ahead” of them?

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The Cubs are currently 57-74, yet they’ve gone 5-5 in their last 10 games. They’re bad and they’re worse than they were before they jettisoned all their stars at the deadline fire sale, but if their goal is to be as bad as possible to secure as good a draft pick as possible, they’re failing at that as well. Currently, the Nationals, Marlins, Pirates, Diamondbacks, Orioles, and Rangers all have worse records than the Cubs and they’ve also all been playing just as poorly or more poorly than the Cubs over their last 10 games.

That puts the Cubs at pick number seven. That’s pretty good, right? Well, the question is, how high (or low) can they conceivably or possibly go? Out of the six teams ahead of them, only the Nats and Marlins are within three games with the other four at least 10 games out of reach of the Cubs.

That means, for all intents and purposes, the highest the Cubs can move up is two spots. If things go poorly enough for the Cubs and well enough for the Nats and Marlins, the Cubs highest draft spot would be number five in the 2022 MLB Draft. Is there a considerable different between where they’re at now at seven and five? Probably not, but what does it matter at this point given what’s happened this season?

Chicago Cubs could end up drafting number five in the 2022 MLB Draft.

The season has a long way to go and a lot can happen, even for teams who are now out of contention and vying for less than mediocrity. Ultimately, for the sake of this discussion, how do they get to number five and is it a likely scenario?

The Cubs have 31 games left, with 20 games coming against teams with a winning record and 11 games against teams with a losing record, namely seven against the Pirates and four with the Twins. The good new is that they should lose their fair share against the bad teams and can control their own destiny against the teams below them.

The only thing left to find out is whether they’re going to play .500 ball the way they’ve done it lately, or if they’re gonna bomb away the rest of the year and push their way up the draft board.