The 2020 MLB Draft came out of the gates HOT. After Spencer Torkelson was selected first overall, all bets were off. Heston Kjerstad – a player mocked in the 8-11 range – was selected second overall. Max Meyer – an arm mocked between 5 and 11 – went #3.
But no one was talking about Ed Howard to the Cubs. The shortstop was a guy that was projected to be selected before number 16 early on in the draft projection talks. There were plenty of rumors about the Mt. Carmel High Schooler staying in Chicago, but as a member of the White Sox at #11.
Then COVID-19 hit and Howard wasn’t able to play a single inning of baseball this spring. As a result, he fell down draft boards. By the time the draft rolled around, it was more commonplace to see him outside of the first round than around #10. But it was no fault of his own.
My preview of Ed Howard in my pre-draft high school bats piece over the weekend:
At one point, it seemed like there was no way Ed Howard was going to drop all the way down to the Cubs first round selection. But since scouts didn’t get to see anything from the shortstop from Mt. Carmel this spring, he has taken a nosedive down prospect lists. It now seems inevitable that Howard will be on the board when the Cubs are set to make their pick, and they could absolutely do worse than a local kid that has the defensive skills to stick at short and offensive upside to be a complete package at the plate.
There isn’t a gap in Howard’s game. He is very impressive defensively at shortstop, displaying some of the best lateral quickness I have seen in this year’s draft and an arm that is more than strong enough to stick at shortstop. With the bat, he uses those incredibly quick hands and is nice and short to the ball. His bat isn’t nearly as advanced as his defense right now, but there is plenty of promise there for him to develop both a good hit tool and some good pop for a shortstop.
After an era where the Cubs seemed to have more shortstops than they knew what to do with, it is beginning to look that way yet again. Nico Hoerner, Zack Short, Andy Weber, Luis Verdugo, Ed Howard, and Cristian Hernandez will all call the system home when Minor League Baseball resumes next year. You can never have too many shortstops.
This could end up being an absolute steal at #16, and was described as the best pick of the draft so far by ESPN’s Jeff Passan. After the initial shock of the pick for the first few seconds, it just took some very light digging to fall in love with Ed Howard the prospect. He is a hard worker, a local kid, an extreme talent defensively, shows a ton of promise offensively, was a member of the Jackie Robinson team that went to the Little League World Series, seems like a hell of a human being, and now he is a Cub.
I’ll leave you with plenty of tweets with notes and video on the newest member of the organization.
I’ll be back tomorrow covering the Cubs selections in rounds 2-5!
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