Cubs GM talks about draft, Bryant
Talk of the Cubs' future is a lot more fun than discussing the present, so general manager Jed Hoyer was hit with a couple of future-related questions Tuesday.
One concerned Thursday's amateur draft, and the other concerned last year's top pick, third baseman Kris Bryant.
The Cubs have the No. 4 overall pick in the draft, and although pitching remains an organizational need, don't be surprised if they take a position player - possibly a catcher - with their first-round selection.
In the first two years of the regime headed by Theo Epstein, Hoyer and scouting/player development guru Jason McLeod, the Cubs took outfielder Albert Almora and Bryant, respectively, with their first-round picks. They loaded up on pitching in subsequent rounds.
"I think we have been really consistent," Hoyer said. "We're going to take the best player for us. We probably will take a lot of pitching over the course of the draft, but what we do at No. 4, I think, is still a mystery.
"The only team that really knows what they're going to do is the team at No. 1. We don't know what's going to happen in front of us. Obviously that creates some variables."
Bryant is tearing it up at Class AA Tennessee, but the Cubs are reluctant to move him up, either to Class AAA Iowa or to the big club.
Bryant entered Tuesday with a line of .351/.455/.688 at Tennessee with 18 home runs and 49 RBI.
"It's fun looking at his stats for the month of May … it is fun to see a guy put up that kind of month," Hoyer said of Bryant, who hit 12 homers and drove in 34 in May. "Certainly, we tell every prospect to go dominate, and he's obviously doing that.
"I think we probably want to see it for a little bit longer. It's only been two months at that level, and he's been sort of been skipping up through the system without really a long time at one level.
"Everything, from defense to baserunning to obviously what he's done offensively, he's everything we hoped for, and hopefully, he'll keep it up."
New radio deal?
The Cubs did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Tuesday night on a published report that they have scheduled a Thursday news conference. The report said the Cubs likely would announce a new radio-broadcast deal with WBBM-AM, ending a long-standing relationship with WGN.
Such a move reportedly has been in the works for several weeks.
Castillo to DL; Whiteside up:
Catcher Welington Castillo went on the disabled list with inflammation in his left rib cage. Castillo said he felt the injury during his first at-bat Sunday in Milwaukee.
"My first swing, my first at-bat, I just felt something pop," he said. "I tried to keep playing, but it was getting worse and worse."
The Cubs selected the contract of veteran catcher Eli Whiteside from Iowa. Whiteside, 34, went to spring training as a nonroster man with the Cubs.
This and that:
It's possible former big-league slugger Manny Ramirez could join Iowa this weekend as he begins his new job as a player-coach. Ramirez is in Arizona getting into shape … The Cubs say they hope to know more in a couple of days about pitching prospect C.J. Edwards, who has been sidelined by a shoulder injury. Jed Hoyer said recent tests have been positive and that the Cubs hope to "ramp up" Edwards' throwing program.