This one stings a little more because the city of Chicago was rooting for Ed Howard, but unfortunately, the 2020 first-round pick by the Cubs has been released. Howard, 24, was taken with the 16th overall pick out of Mount Carmel High School, but a major injury derailed the shortstop’s development in the minor leagues, and the talented infielder hasn’t been the same ever since.
The Cubs gave Howard a $3,745,500 signing bonus, and because of the COVID-19 pandemic, he didn’t make his pro debut until 2021 after minor league baseball resumed. Howard didn’t play his senior season in high school prior to the draft, but he was still seen as one of the best prep players in the country, ranking ahead of Pete Crow-Armstrong.
Via North Side Bound.
Baseball America ranked Howard he 6th best prep player (Pete Crow-Armstrong 11th, Dylan Crews 16th). Perfect Game ranked Howard seventh overall in the prep class.
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His first minor league season was rough, as Howard batted only .225 in 80 games and hit four home runs in 326 plate appearances. Howard went up to A+ Ball with the Sound Bend Cubs to start the 2022 season, and while he began in a slump, there was a glimmer of hope. Howard slashed .320/.382/.440 in 14 games before suffering a life-changing injury.
When any player gets injured in the minor leagues, teams are extremely quiet about the progress. Howard did not return to the field until June of 2023, and he was limited to 45 games. The struggles continued as Howard posted a .484 OPS in 188 plate appearances at South Bend.
Howard’s last year of regular playing time in the minor leagues came in 2024, when he spent most of the season with South Bend before getting a surprise bump up to Triple-A in September. The right-handed hitting shortstop posted a .225/.281/.298 slash line with a pair of home runs in 400 plate appearances.
In 2025, Howard played only 25 games, missing significant time due to lingering issues from the hip injury he suffered in 2022. The 24-year-old played in 40 games at Double-A to start this year before playing in 12 games with the Iowa Cubs at Triple-A before he was released at the end of August.
In an interview with the Knox News back in July, Howard opened up about how difficult his life was during his hip injury and the long rehab he underwent.
Via Knox News.
Howard tore the labrum in his left hip, dislocated the joint and fractured the posterior wall in his pelvis. Eight days later, a titanium plate was inserted with screws. He spent two months glued to a hospital bed, receiving blood-thinner injections in his stomach and watching his left leg shrink from not being used. He had to re-learn how to walk. The physical recovery was measurable. The mental recovery was not.
He was the hometown kid, so automatically the pressure was even higher for Howard. It sucks because we’ll never really know how good Ed Howard could have been.
