Ole Miss' Cade Townsend selected by Chicago Cubs as the 23rd pick of the 2026 MLB Draft

While Ole Miss fans would love to see Cade Townsend back in Oxford come February it appears he is off to chase his professional dream.

Townsend was selected by the Chicago Cubs in the first round round of the MLB Draft as the 23rd overall pick on Saturday.

The slot value for the pick is set at $3.95 million

“Cade Townsend, kind of a different animal,” Lance Brozdowski, a player development analyst, said during the broadcast. “A little bit undersized but his pitch package is massive. He’s a guy that I think will throw probably seven. You can even push him into the area of eight pitches at the big league level. Has such a spin feel. Threw a bunch of slider-cutter variants. Sits 95 (miles per hour). (Townsend and Taylor Rabe) are top-five college pitching talents.”

After having a good postseason outing to close out the 2025 season Townsend entered this season with a lot of expectations and hype as Ole Miss’ Saturday starter. Things went well but a shoulder injury at Texas to start the Southeastern Conference season sidelined him for a couple weeks and as the season wore on he grinded through a couple tough outings to close out the regular season.

Townsend finished the season with a 3.94 earned run average and a 5-3 record. In 64 innings pitches he gave up 33 runs – 28 earned – off 55 hits while recording 88 strikeouts and issuing 22 walks.

He is the first Ole Miss player to come off the board and resetting what next season’s weekend rotation will look like. Hunter Elliott remains after he announced on Saturday his plans to return in 2027.