Will Cubs pivot from last year's pitcher-heavy draft haul?

Last year's Cubs draft was all about pitching. They took pitchers with 16 of their 20 picks, including 13 of the first 14.

So is this a year to change tactics and maybe take power bats with 16 of their 20 picks, since that's what they're sorely missing at the big-league level?

"You can look at it several ways," president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said. "I feel like, 'What is every team going to be looking for? Everyone's looking for pitching all the time.'

"It's hard to find pitching. Pitching isn't as durable as it once was, it's harder to find. We go through more pitchers."

The Cubs will choose 13th in the first round of Sunday's MLB Draft. In five of the last seven years, the Cubs have taken pitchers with their first pick. The two exceptions were Nico Hoerner in 2018 and Ed Howard in 2020.

Most mock drafts have the Cubs taking a position player at 13, but that would be bucking their tendency.

"Do we need power bats? Yes," Hoyer said. "Is there ever a point where you feel like you have enough pitching? Never. I think that's the hard part is you can't have enough pitching. You just can't.

"Then if you think you do, you're going to have guys get hurt or poor performance. I think we've really worked hard to build up our pitching, but I'll never feel like we have enough pitching."

You can look at mock drafts to get an idea of which player the Cubs might take, but no mock draft predicted they'd take Oklahoma pitcher Cade Horton last year at No. 7.

Hoyer and the Cubs used the "under slot" strategy, which could be in play again this year. In today's MLB, every team gets a pool of money it can spend to sign its draft picks. Teams that draft higher get larger draft pools.

So what teams can do is draft someone in the first round who is projected to go lower, then sign him using less bonus money than what is slotted to that particular spot. The player is still getting more than originally expected and the team now has more money left in its pool to use on other players.

With their second 2022 pick, the Cubs took LHP Jackson Ferris from IMG Academy, who had committed to Mississippi. They signed him to a $3 million bonus and felt like they ended up with two first-round talents.

So that could happen again. But plenty of logic suggests the Cubs are more likely to take a position player.

One interesting candidate that has been linked to the Cubs is high school shortstop Arjun Nimmala from Strawberry Crest, Fla. His parent immigrated from India shortly before he was born. Nimmala and his younger brother learned how to play cricket in the backyard before switching to baseball.

There are some college infielders who hit 20-plus home runs in the spring - Maryland's Matt Shaw, TCU's Brayden Taylor and Miami's Yohandy Morales. Florida Atlantic first baseman Nolan Schanual led the nation in OPS.

Besides Nimmala, some other high school infielders expected to fall in the Cubs' range are Aidan Miller from Mitchell, Fla.; Colin Houck from Lilburn, Ga. and Bryce Eldridge from Vienna, Va.

There seems to be a strong consensus about the top three players in the draft, but the order they'll be taken is uncertain. Those 3 are the LSU tandem of OF Dylan Crews and RHP Paul Skeans, along with Florida OF Wyatt Langford.

Pittsburgh won the draft lottery, so the Pirates will pick first, followed by Washington and Detroit. Some say Crews is the best prospect, Skeans has the potential to join the Pirates' rotation immediately or Langford could be an underslot pick.

The White Sox have the No. 15 pick of the first round, which will air on ESPN beginning at 6 p.m.

Twitter: @McGrawDHSports