For the first time, the draft will be just five rounds. It was shortened from 40 rounds as part of the initial labor agreement between the owners and players in late March as MLB dealt with the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic halting the season. The MLB amateur draft starts Wednesday evening, and the Cubs hold the No. 16 pick.
Kantrovitz will navigate a draft with little margin for error after he replaced Jason McLeod, who oversaw the Cubs' last eight drafts before moving into a new role in the front office. While McLeod and the Cubs drafted a core of position players that formed the foundation for their World Series championship team in 2016, their shortcomings in scouting and developing pitchers led to the organization's change in scouting directors.
"The reality is everybody's got to be a bit more creative," said Kantrovitz, whom the Cubs hired from the Athletic in November. "The draft is always a situation where you're making decisions based on imperfect information. I think that's particularly true this year."
With the draft shortened, Kantrovitz and the Cubs reached out to some NFL teams with whom they had connections to get advice on how to efficiently scout players on video. Traditionally, baseball talent evaluators rely heavily on in-person evaluations, but that wasn't possible as the coronavirus halted action in mid-March
"They had more experience dealing with players remotely than we had on the baseball side," Kantrovitz said on the Mully & Haugh Show on 670 The Score on Tuesday morning. "One of the things I wanted to pick their brain on was how they were getting past just these generic interviews and Q&A sessions and coming away with something actionable, something above and beyond the generic sessions. They informed me that they do a lot of video breakdowns of each player with their thought process while using video as an aid to get to know the player more thoroughly while establishing common ground with the individual."
While the draft has some strong pitching depth, Kantrovitz didn't give a hint as to which route the Cubs will go. The Cubs have taken pitchers in the first round in two of the past three years -- left-hander Brendon Little and right-hander Alex Lange in 2017 and right-hander Ryan Jensen in 2019.
"Our position will be to get the best player when our pick is up," Kantrovitz said. "But with the draft changes, there could be a change in strategies this year. We have been preparing for the draft by looking at the teams in front of us and what that may mean for who is available when we pick. (It's) uncertain at best in any year. Certainly, some high school players didn't even get out and play a game this spring. That could change a team strategy for this draft."
As Kantrovitz and the Cubs interviewed draft prospects, they included director of pitching Craig Breslow and director of hitting Justin Stone as well.
"These two guys are instrumental to the players the moment we draft them," Kantrovitz said. "Our thinking was including these guys and get a head start on their development quickly. This would help ease that transition and let these players speak to Craig and Stoney and have both of them help us sift through players and evaluate them before the draft."