For the fourth season now, MLB has staged its draft lottery at the Winter Meetings, this year in Orlando, Florida. With the still-relatively new lottery system, most teams that missed the playoffs the prior season get a chance at winning some top talent, hoping to make their mark in the majors sooner rather than later.
The teams with the highest odds to win the first overall pick in the MLB draft this year were the Chicago White Sox, who had the highest odds at 27.73 percent, the Minnesota Twins (22.18%),
and the Pittsburgh Pirates (16.81%). The Baltimore Orioles came in fourth and had the highest odds of any American League East team at 9.24%. The Colorado Rockies were ineligible despite finishing as the worst team in baseball because teams can only be lotto-eligible so many years in a row.
Last year, it was the Washington Nationals who took home the first overall pick, despite finishing with the sixth-worst record in MLB. They selected shortstop Eli Willits from Fort Cobb-Broxton High School in Fort Cobb, Oklahoma. He was the third-youngest player in MLB Draft history to be selected first overall.
This year, though, the winner was the team with the highest odds — the White Sox. The Tampa Bay Rays also jumped from a 3.03 percent chance to get the second overall selection, and the Twins fell one spot to third overall. The San Francisco Giants and Pittsburgh Pirates will round out the top five.
As for the Yankees, they’re further down the order due to their overall finish and luxury tax penalties. So, while they originally had the 25th overall selection, they will move down to 35th pick, per Baseball America.
Last year, they New York selected 39th after losing in the World Series, and the luxury tax violations took hold. They picked shortstop Dax Kilby, a left-handed bat out of Newnan High School in Georgia, who was committed to Clemson and played 18 games of Low-A ball in the Florida State League this past season, where he posted a slashline of .353/.457/.441.
