Cubs mocked to land their Bobby Witt Jr. just hours before MLB Draft

The first round of the 2025 MLB Draft is just hours away, but prospect experts aren't allowing time to pass before dropping their final mock drafts. In recent years, the Cubs have leaned toward the college ranks, taking college pitchers Jordan Wicks and Cade Horton in 2021 and 2022. Then, over the last two years, the Cubs focused on college bats with the selections of Matt Shaw and Cam Smith in 2024 and 2025.

The general lean in mock drafts for the Cubs has been toward college bats, with an emphasis on prospects who can potentially play shortstop at the Major League level. However, speculation has crept in that the Cubs could go the High-School ranks for the first time since they selected Ed Howard in 2020.

In his final mock draft for The Athletic, that is exactly what Keith Law has the Cubs doing. Law projects the Cubs taking high-school shortstop Daniel Pierce. Law's write-up of Pierce does check the box of the type of player the Cubs usually look for.

"This pick is going to be whoever the draft model selects — although, to be fair to the model’s feelings, its past few first-round picks all look pretty good right now. I think this run from 15-19 or so has teams on very similar players, primarily hitters with excellent batted-ball characteristics and good swings."

Final mock gives Cubs a star-in-the-making with Bobby Witt Jr. comp

Law left out one favorable play comp that many prospect evaluators have for Pierce. Pierce has drawn comparisons to Bobby Witt Jr. of the Kansas City Royals, and it's an exercise he hasn't shied away from.

“Just the way he hustles,” Pierce mentioned of Witt. “I just like the way that he plays the game hard and he knows he has game-changing speed, so he's always putting it on display and trying to make things happen.”

Given that the Cubs are drafting in the middle of the first round, they are in a position to take a gamble on projection instead of valuing expectation. With Pierce drawing comps to one of the game's best players, that could be a worthwhile move for the Cubs. Especially when you consider that Dansby Swanson is only getting older and offensive regression is already creeping in.

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