Rule 5 Draft Recap: Cubs Take Three, Lose Zero

The 2025 MLB Rule Draft took place on Wednesday, the final event of the Winter Meetings in Orlando. The Cubs did not select anyone in the major league portion, a change from last year when they picked Gage Workman from the Detroit Tigers. The MiLB phase was much more active, as the team made three selections.

In the first round of the MiLB phase, the Cubs selected Adam Stone, a right-handed pitcher from the New York Yankees. After signing as an undrafted free agent in 2022, Stone appeared in 20 games in Single-A before missing the last two years with a shoulder injury and Tommy John surgery. He recently returned to the mound in the Arizona Fall League, striking out four batters in 5.1 innings of work. Jesse Borek wrote a feature on Stone for MLB Pipeline regarding his baseball journey, which you can read here.

In the second round, the Cubs took Zane Mills from the Cardinals’ Double-A roster. Mills was drafted in the fourth round of the 2021 MLB First-Year Player Draft by the Cardinals and reached as high as Triple-A in 2025. His arsenal includes a sinker, slider, and changeup. In 51.1 Double-A innings this year, Mills posted a 4.91 ERA and 9.47 K/9.

To wrap things up, in the third round of the minor league phase, the Cubs selected Devin Ortiz, an infielder in the Padres’ farm system. He recorded a 94 wRC+ in Double-A during the 2025 campaign, hitting six home runs and stealing 19 bases.

The Cubs did not lose any players from their organization throughout the entire draft, which means that players such as Brandon Birdsell and Cristian Hernández are staying with the club for now. Nothing else of note took place during the draft, and the Winter Meetings ended as quietly as they started.