# List of Chicago Cubs first-round draft picks

The Chicago Cubs are a Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise based in Chicago, Illinois. They play in the National League Central division. Since the institution of MLB's Rule 4 Draft, the Cubs have selected 68 players in the first round. Officially known as the "First-Year Player Draft", the Rule 4 Draft is MLB's primary mechanism for assigning amateur baseball players from high schools, colleges, and other amateur baseball clubs to its teams. The draft order is determined based on the previous season's standings, with the team possessing the worst record receiving the first pick. In addition, teams which lost free agents in the previous off-season may be awarded compensatory or supplementary picks.
Of the 68 players picked in the first round by the Cubs, 32 have been pitchers, the most of any position; 24 of these were right-handed, while 6 were left-handed. Sixteen players picked in the initial round were outfielders, while ten shortstops, two catchers, and one player each at first base, second base, and third base were also taken. The Cubs drafted 26 players out of high school, and 32 out of college. Chicago has drafted eleven players from high schools or colleges in the state of California, with six more coming from Texas and five from Indiana. The Cubs have also taken four players from their home state of Illinois.
The Cubs' most recent World Series championship, in 2016, was the team's first in 108 years. Four of the Cubs' first-round draft picks—Javier Báez (2011), Albert Almora (2012), Kris Bryant (2013), and Kyle Schwarber (2014)—were on the 2016 World Series roster. No pick has been elected to the Hall of Fame. Bryant is the Cubs' only first-round pick to be named Most Valuable Player in either the National or American League, winning NL honors in 2016. He is also one of two picks to have been named NL Rookie of the Year with the Cubs, receiving this award in 2015; the other is Kerry Wood, selected in 1995 and named Rookie of the Year in 1998. One pick—1985 selection Rafael Palmeiro—is a member of both the 3,000 hit club and the 500 home run club. The Cubs have held the first overall pick in the draft only once, in 1982, when they selected Shawon Dunston.
The Cubs have received 13 compensatory picks, including nine selections made in the supplemental round of the draft since the institution of the First-Year Player Draft in 1965. These additional picks are provided when a team loses a particularly valuable free agent in the previous off-season, or, more recently, if a team fails to sign a draft pick from the previous year. As the Cubs have signed all of their first-round picks, they have never been awarded a supplementary pick under this provision.

## Key

| Year | Links to an article about that year's Major League Baseball Draft |
| Position | Indicates the secondary/collegiate position at which the player was drafted, rather than the professional position the player may have gone on to play |
| Pick | Indicates the number of the pick |
| § | Indicates a supplemental pick |
| '16 | Player was a member of the Cubs' 2016 championship team |

## Picks

| Year | Name | Position | School (location) | Pick |
| 1965 | Rick James | Right-handed pitcher | Coffee High School (Florence, Alabama) | 6 |
| 1966 | Dean Burk | Right-handed pitcher | Highland High School (Highland, Illinois) | 5 |
| 1967 | Terry Hughes | Shortstop | Dorman High School (Spartanburg, South Carolina) | 2 |
| 1968 | Ralph Rickey | Outfielder | University of Oklahoma (Norman, Oklahoma) | 15 |
| 1969 | Roger Metzger | Shortstop | St. Edward's University (Austin, Texas) | 16 |
| 1970 | Gene Hiser | Outfielder | University of Maryland, College Park (College Park, Maryland) | 19 |
| 1971 | Jeff Wehmeier | Right-handed pitcher | Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School (Indianapolis, Indiana) | 16 |
| 1972 | Brian Vernoy | Left-handed pitcher | La Quinta High School (La Quinta, California) | 15 |
| 1973 | Jerry Tabb | First baseman | University of Tulsa (Tulsa, Oklahoma) | 16 |
| 1974 | Scot Thompson | Outfielder | Knoch High School (Saxonburg, Pennsylvania) | 7 |
| 1975 | Brian Rosinski | Outfielder | Evanston Township High School (Evanston, Illinois) | 4 |
| 1976 | Herman Segelke | Right-handed pitcher | El Camino High School (San Francisco, California) | 7 |
| 1977 | Randy Martz | Right-handed pitcher | University of South Carolina (Columbia, South Carolina) | 12 |
| 1978 | Bill Hayes | Catcher | Indiana State University (Terre Haute, Indiana) | 13 |
| 1979 | Jon Perlman | Right-handed pitcher | Baylor University (Waco, Texas) | 12 |
| 1980 | Don Schulze | Right-handed pitcher | Lake Park High School (Roselle, Illinois) | 11 |
| 1981 | Joe Carter | Outfielder | Wichita State University (Wichita, Kansas) | 2 |
| 1981 | Vance Lovelace | Left-handed pitcher | Hillsborough High School (Tampa, Florida) | 16 |
| 1982 | Shawon Dunston | Shortstop | Thomas Jefferson High School (Brooklyn, New York) | 1 |
| 1982 | Tony Woods | Shortstop | Whittier College (Whittier, California) | 17 |
| 1982 | Stan Boderick | Outfielder | Thomas Richard Robinson High School (Tampa, Florida) | 27§ |
| 1983 | Jackie Davidson | Right-handed pitcher | Everman Joe C. Bean High School (Everman, Texas) | 6 |
| 1984 | Drew Hall | Left-handed pitcher | Morehead State University (Morehead, Kentucky) | 3 |
| 1985 | Rafael Palmeiro | Outfielder | Mississippi State University (Starkville, Mississippi) | 22 |
| 1985 | Dave Masters | Right-handed pitcher | University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, California) | 24 |
| 1986 | Derrick May | Outfielder | Newark High School (Newark, Delaware) | 9 |
| 1987 | Mike Harkey | Right-handed pitcher | California State University, Fullerton (Fullerton, California) | 4 |
| 1988 | Ty Griffin | Second baseman | Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, Georgia) | 9 |
| 1989 | Earl Cunningham | Outfielder | Lancaster High School (Lancaster, South Carolina) | 11 |
| 1990 | Lance Dickson | Left-handed pitcher | University of Arizona (Tucson, Arizona) | 23 |
| 1991 | Doug Glanville | Outfielder | University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) | 12 |
| 1992 | Derek Wallace | Right-handed pitcher | Pepperdine University (Malibu, California) | 11 |
| 1993 | Brooks Kieschnick | Outfielder | University of Texas at Austin (Austin, Texas) | 10 |
| 1993 | Jon Ratliff | Right-handed pitcher | Le Moyne College (Syracuse, New York) | 24 |
| 1993 | Kevin Orie | Shortstop | Indiana University Bloomington (Bloomington, Indiana) | 29§ |
| 1994 | Jayson Peterson | Right-handed pitcher | East High School (Denver, Colorado) | 15 |
| 1995 | Kerry Wood | Right-handed pitcher | Grand Prairie High School (Grand Prairie, Texas) | 4 |
| 1996 | Todd Noel | Right-handed pitcher | North Vermillion High School (Maurice, Louisiana) | 17 |
| 1997 | Jon Garland | Right-handed pitcher | John F. Kennedy High School (Granada Hills, California) | 10 |
| 1998 | Corey Patterson | Outfielder | Harrison High School (Kennesaw, Georgia) | 3 |
| 1999 | Ben Christensen | Outfielder | Wichita State University (Wichita, Kansas) | 26 |
| 2000 | Lou Montañez | Shortstop | Miami Coral Park High School (Miami, Florida) | 3 |
| 2001 | Mark Prior | Right-handed pitcher | University of Southern California (Los Angeles, California) | 2 |
| 2002 | Bobby Brownlie | Right-handed pitcher | Rutgers University–New Brunswick (New Brunswick, New Jersey) | 21 |
| 2002 | Luke Hagerty | Left-handed pitcher | Ball State University (Muncie, Indiana) | 32§ |
| 2002 | Chadd Blasko | Right-handed pitcher | Purdue University (West Lafayette, Indiana) | 36§ |
| 2002 | Matthew Clanton | Right-handed pitcher | Orange Coast College (Costa Mesa, California) | 38§ |
| 2003 | Ryan Harvey | Outfielder | Dunedin High School (Dunedin, Florida) | 6 |
| 2004 | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick |
| 2005 | Mark Pawelek | Left-handed pitcher | Springville High School (Springville, Utah) | 20 |
| 2006 | Tyler Colvin | Outfielder | Clemson University (Clemson, South Carolina) | 13 |
| 2007 | Josh Vitters | Third baseman | Cypress High School (Cypress, California) | 3 |
| 2007 | Josh Donaldson | Catcher | Auburn University (Auburn, Alabama) | 48§ |
| 2008 | Andrew Cashner | Right-handed pitcher | Texas Christian University (Fort Worth, Texas) | 19 |
| 2008 | Ryan Flaherty | Shortstop | Vanderbilt University (Nashville, Tennessee) | 41§ |
| 2009 | Brett Jackson | Outfielder | University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, California) | 31 |
| 2010 | Hayden Simpson | Right-handed pitcher | Southern Arkansas University (Magnolia, Arkansas) | 16 |
| 2011 | Javier Báez '16 | Shortstop | Arlington Country Day School (Jacksonville, Florida) | 9 |
| 2012 | Albert Almora '16 | Outfielder | Mater Academy Charter School (Hialeah Gardens, Florida) | 6 |
| 2012 | Pierce Johnson | Right-handed pitcher | Missouri State University (Springfield, Missouri) | 43§ |
| 2012 | Paul Blackburn | Right-handed pitcher | Heritage High School (Brentwood, California) | 56§ |
| 2013 | Kris Bryant '16 | Third baseman | University of San Diego (San Diego, California) | 2 |
| 2014 | Kyle Schwarber '16 | Catcher | Indiana University Bloomington (Bloomington, Indiana) | 4 |
| 2015 | Ian Happ | Outfielder | University of Cincinnati (Cincinnati, Ohio) | 9 |
| 2016 | no first-round pick $^o$ | no first-round pick $^o$ | no first-round pick $^o$ | no first-round pick $^o$ |
| 2017 | Brendon Little | Left-handed pitcher | State College of Florida, Manatee–Sarasota (Bradenton, Florida) | 27 |
| 2017 | Alex Lange | Right-handed pitcher | Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) | 30 |
| 2018 | Nico Hoerner | Shortstop | Stanford University (Stanford, California) | 24 |
| 2019 | Ryan Jensen | Right-handed pitcher | Fresno State (Fresno, California) | 24 |
| 2020 | Ed Howard | Shortstop | Mount Carmel High School (Chicago, Illinois) | 16 |
| 2021 | Jordan Wicks | Left-handed pitcher | Kansas State University (Manhattan, Kansas) | 21 |
| 2022 | Cade Horton | Right-handed pitcher | University of Oklahoma (Norman, Oklahoma) | 7 |
| 2023 | Matt Shaw | Shortstop | University of Maryland (College Park, Maryland) | 13 |
| 2024 | Cam Smith | Third baseman | Florida State University (Tallahassee, Florida) | 14 |

### Notes

* ↑ This is the city in Contra Costa County, and not to be confused with the Los Angeles neighborhood of the same name.