Antonacci: 2026 draft pick Marton embracing new technology in Cubs’ organization
Mississauga Tigers grad Ryan Marton (Scarborough, Ont.), shown here training at Tread Athletics, was selected in the 17th round of the 2026 MLB draft by the Chicago Cubs. Photo: Tread Athletics
September 15, 2026
By J.P. Antonacci
Canadian Baseball Network
You can hear the excitement in Ryan Marton’s voice when the right-hander from Scarborough, Ont., gets talking about his first few months as a pitching prospect with the Chicago Cubs.
“It’s like a kid in a candy store. I’m so happy with everything,” Marton said of his time at the club’s training complex in Arizona.
“They have a lot of insane technology there that I haven’t been using before. It’s a lot of very useful feedback.”
The Cubs chose Marton with their 17th round pick in July’s MLB draft, making the 6-foot-4 righty the 517th overall pick.
The soon-to-be 22-year-old comes to Chicago from the University of Nevada Las Vegas and three years working with Tread Athletics, a North Carolina-based pitching performance lab that helped Marton add velocity and develop a cutter and changeup to complement his sweeper and a mid-90s fastball.
“That was my introduction to mechanical analysis and diving deep into pitching,” Marton told the Canadian Baseball Network during a brief trip home to Scarborough to renew his work visa.
In a social media post congratulating Marton on draft day, Tread Athletics said their star pupil underwent “a full mechanical and arsenal overhaul,” while a columnist reporting on Marton signing with the Cubs for $200,000 said the young pitcher started turning heads in college after “intensive mechanical restructuring.”
Marton describes the process a bit differently.
“I wouldn’t classify it as a full overhaul. Just constant improvements of one thing after another,” he said.
“I think if you were to overhaul everything all at once, it would be extremely difficult to perform. All the changes I’ve made before are like building blocks. I keep building on them and adding new pieces to the puzzle.”
Marton’s coaches at the pitching lab focused on one specific part of his delivery at a time, evaluating arm angle, stride length, pitch grips and more.
“You isolate one part of the mechanical sequence that you want to tackle, and you work on that,” Marton said.
“Then when it becomes second nature and you repeat it without thought, that’s when I’ve been jumping to the next mechanical improvement that I need to make.”
It sounds daunting, but Marton said getting into the minutiae of mechanics is right up his alley.
“It’s the most fun thing for me. I am a complete pitching nerd,” he said.
“It is my favourite thing when we bring out really nuanced mechanical details. Anything to do with biomechanics, how I can throw harder, how I can make my pitches better. That is one of my favourite things about baseball. I just love learning about that.”
Embracing discomfort
He may love the challenge, but Marton admits it is not easy to change an ingrained motion like where his foot lands when throwing a pitch.
“Oh, it’s incredibly difficult. It’s one step back for two steps forward,” he said.
“When I first start working on it, everything feels weird, nothing feels good. I feel like I won’t be able to throw as hard. The outputs will be down.
“Getting it right will take time, and I know that. So at the beginning, I’m not worried about maximum outputs. I’m thinking about the future. Because once my foot starts landing right, I can get more things starting to feel normal again and get myself used to that movement.”
That halting progression puts to lie the idea that everything will click right away. In fact, Marton said getting uncomfortable is a key part of getting better, since even changes that objectively make his pitching motion more efficient will feel awkward at first.
“I’ve had so many great mentors tell me ‘you have to be comfortable being uncomfortable,’” he said.
“You can’t really be focused on immediate results. But I trust everybody that I’m working with, and that this is the path forward.”
Now with the Cubs, Marton’s development is guided by a group of coaches from the organization’s pitching development team who have already suggested a few mechanical “tweaks.”
“A lot of it is mainly arm path. Some stride length,” Marton said.
“They’ve been very good at guiding my preexisting training while also adding a couple new things that have helped quite a bit.”
Time will tell how he does in game action – thus far he has been limited to bullpen sessions and a few live at-bats – but Marton said he has already noticed positive changes, namely a slight uptick in velocity, more consistency with his pitch shapes, and more vertical drop to his changeup.
“Honestly, it’s a little overwhelming at first because of how many new things there are,” he said.
“But once it settles down and you get used to it and get into a rhythm, I see so much room for improvement and growth.”
‘More and more doors opened’
Playing professional baseball was not on Marton’s mind while he went to class at Bayview Glen Independent School in Toronto and pitched for the Scarborough Stingers.
“Growing up in Scarborough, honestly, I felt playing college baseball was kind of a pipe dream,” he said. “I had no idea that any of this was possible up until high school.”
Ryan Marton (Scarborough, Ont.) honed his skills with the Mississauga Tigers. Photo: Mississauga Tigers
Marton said his two most important mentors were Frank Salerno with the Stingers and Greg Byron with the Mississauga Tigers, who helped the young hurler make the jump to college baseball in the U.S.
“They always believed that I could do it, so I just trusted them. And as things went on, more and more doors opened,” Marton said.
He spent two seasons with Midland College in Texas – piling up strikeouts and limiting hits while struggling with control at times – before jumping from junior college to NCAA Division I earlier this year to join the University of Nevada Las Vegas Rebels.
Used mainly as a reliever in Las Vegas, Marton struck out 22 batters in 19 innings, picking up two saves while making four starts in 13 total appearances.
The hard-throwing righty got on Chicago’s radar thanks to a coach at Tread Athletics with ties to the organization, and that connection allowed Marton to set up a draft-day surprise.
He and his parents – Lucien and Mariella – were watching the draft in their Scarborough home. (Marton’s sister, Marissa, was finishing her master’s in biomedical engineering in Italy at the time.)
Marton had been tipped off that he would be drafted in the 15th round.
“I didn’t tell my parents anything,” he said.
Instead, moments before he was selected, he slyly trained his cell phone camera at his mom and dad, who were watching intently from the couch.
“I tried to record as discreetly as possible,” Marton said.
“And when they finally called my name, my parents were jumping up and down. It was such a nice moment.”
Tough decision
Marton said it was a thrill to hear his name called on draft day, but it was not a given that he would turn pro.
“It was actually an incredibly difficult decision,” he said. “Definitely one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make in my baseball career.”
He was drafted in July, just a few weeks after committing to the University of Missouri to play Division I ball.
“I think Mizzou is a great program. I love the coaches there. They were amazing to me,” Marton said.
“I think they have so much to offer development-wise and experience I could be getting in the top level of college baseball.”
Ultimately he opted for the Cubs, attracted by the opportunity to join an organization where he already had some ties thanks to his coaches at Tread, who vouched for Chicago’s pitching development staff.
“I just had to weigh my options, and I believe that accepting (Chicago’s offer) was the right play for me,” Marton said.
“But it was closer than you could imagine.”
One pitch at a time
A few days after getting drafted, Marton was on a plane to Arizona. His brief trip north of the border in September was his first real chance to see his hometown friends and celebrate his introduction to professional baseball.
“It’s been really nice to see them again,” he said. “It was a very nice little hiatus.”
With his new work visa secured, Marton will head back to Arizona for “strength camp.”
His offseason will start in November and bring him back home to Scarborough, though the break will not be long, as the Cubs want him back Stateside in January for “velo camp.”
“A lot of the offseason is just going to be training (and) getting better, because when I get back there for spring training, it’s go time,” Marton said.
“It’s time to prove myself. It’s time to get into professional baseball. It’s time to pitch.”
Some analysts peg the tall righty as a future multi-inning reliever, saying shorter outings will allow his fastball to play up and make his other offerings more effective. But Marton – who started and closed games in college – has not put any labels on what he could become.
“I’ve seen all sides of the dice, and I think that starter (or) reliever is not an important topic that’s taking up space in my head,” he said.
“I’m just going to try and become as good as I can. And if a starter role is open and available, I’d love to take that. If they see me as a closer, then I’m going to work to be the best closer on the planet.”
But that is down the road. For now, much like his methodical approach to reimagining his mechanics, Marton is taking things one pitch at a time and focusing on staying positive.
“Baseball is such a mental sport. Everything is in your head. If you can believe that you can do it, I put my money that you can,” he said.
“Everybody has ups and downs. Doesn’t matter who you are. It’s what you do in the downs that will define the rest of your career.”