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The 2021 MLB Draft is tonight, starting at 6 p.m. Central time. For the first time, the draft is being held in July and it is being held in Denver as part of the All-Star Game festivities. It’s also the first time the draft is being held on a Sunday.
You can watch tonight’s proceedings on either the MLB Network or ESPN, as both networks are broadcasting the first round. The MLB Network will have a one-hour preview show starting at 5 pm Central.
Tonight, the teams will only be making the first round and compensation picks. The Pirates have the first pick and the Rangers pick second. The Cubs have the 21st pick of the first round. You can find the draft order here.
Every team has a celebrity representative in the draft room to make the pick and the Cubs will be represented by Ryne Sandberg. Andre Dawson and Ferguson Jenkins are also scheduled to attend the draft.
The 2nd through 10th rounds will be held starting at noon Central on Monday. You can follow those rounds on MLB.com. Finally, rounds 11 through 20 will start at 11 am Central on Tuesday and will be held by a conference call. You can listen to that on MLB.com as well.
If you haven’t read my Draft Preview from Saturday, check it out now. There’s no guarantee that the Cubs will pick one of the players I profiled there, but those seven players should go in the first round or compensation picks to some team.
The number one question I get about the draft is about trading picks like they do in other leagues. In case you don’t know, MLB draft picks cannot be traded, with a few exceptions and those trades had to be made weeks ago. So the Cubs will not be “trading up” or “trading down.” They will make the 21st pick. The reason why picks can’t be traded is basically because they’ve never been able to be traded before. The long explanation revolves around some MLB politics of the 1980s and they aren’t really relevant anymore.
There are many joyous moments in baseball and seeing young men get one step closer to their lifelong dream is one of them. And as fans, what we can do is welcome these young men to our crazy Cubs Family. Tonight we will have one more member of our family whom we hope will be playing at Wrigley Field for years to come.
This is an open thread to discuss the draft.