As a fan of a struggling team you get to learn a lot about the MLB Draft every year. It is what provides fans of rebuilding teams hope. While you can’t get the instant impact from draft picks like NBA
or NFL teams do, you can still strike gold. However, the new draft system is something that frustrates me.
Despite finishing the season with a 66-96 record, the Washington Nationals are locked into the 11th pick. This is due to the new MLB Draft rules. Going into the 2023 Draft, the MLB introduced a draft lottery like what they have in the NBA and NHL. However, there were some anti-tanking measures put in. This makes sense, you don’t want to reward teams too much for being awful.
That part is not the issue for me. The issue is the distinction between teams that pay revenue sharing and teams that receive revenue sharing. Teams that pay revenue sharing can only pick inside the top 10 one year before they are booted out. However, teams that receive revenue sharing can pick in the top 10 two years in a row.
The league is basically rigging the process for small market teams. As a team that pays revenue sharing, the Nats can’t pick in the top 10 back to back years. For me, this is just totally unfair for our fans. The franchise has been in a tough spot these last couple years, and picking at the top of the draft is something that could help us out.
In 2024, when they did the lottery drawing, the Nationals actually “won” the lottery in two straight drawings. However, since they were ineligible, they had to re-do the process and the Guardians ended up getting the first pick that year. The Nationals definitely needed that first pick a whole lot more than a Guardians team that is constantly competitive.
The process is just screwing over Nationals fans. Why should teams like the A’s and Pirates be able to pick inside the top 10 back to back years, but not the Nats? The Nats had the 24th highest payroll in 2025 and the second lowest active payroll. They are not some financial juggernaut that needs to be limited by the MLB.
The fact the Dodgers get to do some of the stuff they do, but the Nationals can’t pick in the top 10 back to back years is ridiculous. Imagine a Nationals team with a guy like Chase Burns, Travis Bazzana, JJ Wetherholt or Nick Kurtz. We would have a lot more hope for the future. The reason we could not get those guys was because of a silly MLB rule.
The 2026 draft is being talked about as a very good draft. Roch Cholowsky is seen as one of the best college shortstop prospects in the last decade. However, the Nationals have no chance at him because they are picking 11th. Sure, the Nats still need to do a better job at hitting on these first round picks, but we are being screwed over.
Thankfully, the Nats got some lottery luck in 2025 and were able to pick Eli Willits first overall. It would be even more frustrating if the Nats were picking 7th or 8th and then got kicked out of the lottery.
However, the fact that 2024 and 2026 are stronger at the top of the draft than 2025 ticks me off. I wish the Nats had an opportunity to grab some of the true blue chippers at the top of those drafts. Unfortunately, they will not be able to because of a silly rule. Paul Toboni will have to nail the 11th pick in his first draft, which is harder to do than a top 5 pick.
For me, the fix is pretty obvious. There should be the same set of rules for all teams. It should not matter where you stand on the revenue sharing totem pole. Whether you are kicked out after one year or two years, the rules should be the same for all teams. If you are picking in the top 10 multiple years in a row, you clearly need that pick, regardless of market size.
Teams like the White Sox and Nationals are being particularly screwed over by this. While they are revenue payers, they are not being run like big market teams, so we need to build in the draft. The White Sox finished 41-121 in 2024, but were booted to the 10th pick. That just makes absolutely no sense.
The Rockies not being able to pick inside the top 10 after a third straight horrible year makes more sense, but the White Sox were picking 15th overall in 2023. They should have been eligible to get the number one pick.
This will have to be sorted out in the next collective bargaining agreement because it is simply ridiculous. There are going to be more high profile issues that are discussed, but this needs to be something that is tweaked. The lottery system has some things I like about it, but this revenue sharing part is just screwing over Washington Nationals fans.
