The Cubs are injecting more talent into their infield prospect depth.

The team selected Florida State infielder Cam Smith with the 14th pick in Sunday’s MLB Draft. In the 2nd round, the Cubs took infielder Cole Mathis from the College of Charleston with the 54th overall pick.

“I think there were a fair amount of college hitters that we thought would would go off the board quick and they did, and we weren’t sure how many of those that were at the top of our list would,” Cubs vice president of scouting Dan Kantrovitz said. “And, as it turned out, there were a couple. And so I think we probably ended up having more options at our pick than we anticipated, which is always good. And Cam was somebody that we prioritized from the beginning.”

It’s the second straight year the team has selected a college hitter in the 1st round, after taking infielder Matt Shaw out of Maryland in 2023. Smith, 21, hit .387 as a sophomore at Florida State with 16 home runs, 57 RBI and a 1.142 OPS. His .387 average was the highest in Florida State history since Tyler Holt hit .401 in 2009 and his 104 hits were the most by a Seminole since Buster Posey hit 119 in 2008.

“I just got a big support system,” Smith said after being selected. “So, to hear my name called, I just broke down in tears immediately managers it all hit me at once.”

Smith — who is 6-foot, 3-inches and weighs 229 pounds — was a top prospect coming out of high school but stuck to his commitment to the Seminoles and went undrafted. He put up a solid freshman campaign — he had 12 home runs, an .843 OPS and was part of the ACC All-Freshman team.

But he really broke out after that first year.

Last summer, Smith played in the prestigious Cape Cod League and hit .347 with 6 home runs and a .981 OPS and was named Most Outstanding Pro Prospect. That led to his breakout campaign in 2024 with the Seminoles.

“Cam is actually somebody that — dating back to high school when he was coming out of South Florida — we had quite a bit of interest,” Kantrovitz said. “His combination of performance and tools and still some upside with some unlocks that we’ve identified, I think, make it a pretty exciting combination of characteristics. He’s somebody that, I think, checked a lot different boxes for us.

“Somebody that we think can play third base, can stay there, potentially be really good at it. Hits for power, hits for average. So we didn’t really see any holes in his game.”

A new mental approach helped set the tone for that breakout.

“I took pride in meditation, and it got to a point where it was a hobby,” Smith said. “[I was] doing it before, after the games, during the games, even when I’m at third base or on the on-deck circle.

“So, meditation is something that slowed my heartbeat down and that’s something huge that gets you a long way in this game.”

Part of the improvement this season was his approach at the plate.

As a freshman, Smith drew 21 walks and struck out 66 times in 230 plate appearances. This past season, Smith walked 44 times and struck out 48 times in 322 appearances, posting a whopping .488 on-base percentage. He had a 56-game on-base streak over his last two seasons at Florida State.

Both Perfect Game and Baseball America voted him as a second-team All-American.

“I definitely developed an approach that I stuck to all season long and I was stubborn with it because I knew what worked for me and I knew that’s what I was best at,” Smith said. “So, I just stuck to it and that was just hitting low-line drives and the right-center gap. So that’s really what changed my game and let me see the ball deeper.”

The Cubs are hopeful that Smith can follow the path of their last three first-rounders — LHP Jordan Wicks (2021), RHP Cade Horton (2022) and Shaw have all ascended quickly through the minor league ladders. Last season, Shaw reached Double-A just a couple of months after being drafted. Wicks debuted in the majors last year and was part of the Opening Day rotation. Horton is the Cubs’ top prospect and at Triple-A Iowa.

“I think we try to go in each have a blank slate,” Kantrovitz said earlier in the week. “And I think if something hadn’t worked out with one of those picks, we wouldn’t want it to affect our strategy in a negative way. And so, I think similarly, the fact that we’ve had some positive returns so far from some recent picks, we don’t want that to alter our strategy too much either.”

Mathis, 20, hit .335 with 14 home runs and 57 RBI for the Cougars. In three seasons at the College of Charleston, Mathis hit .324 with 24 home runs and 1.014 OPS. He was a two-way player until 2023 — he had a 3.45 ERA in 60 innings on the mound last season.

“He’s just got a natural swing plane that lends itself to consistently hitting the ball in the air,” Kantrovitz said. “And then with his with his size and strength, he ends up putting a pretty good charge into it.

“So I’d say a combination of contact, power and doing that in the air with a pretty symmetrical spray distribution, too.”