Christmas came early for the Royals this year.
The MLB draft lottery has hurt the Royals before – in both 2022 and 2023 they were pushed back in the order due to lottery results. But this year, fortune
shone upon them, and they were awarded the #6 overall pick in next summer’s draft, despite finishing with the third-longest odds out of lottery-eligible teams.
The Chicago White Sox landed the #1 overall pick, no surprise as they had the best odds of eligible teams. The rest of the lottery picks were the Rays at #2, the Twins at #3, the Giants at #4, the Pirates at #5, and the Royals at #6. Here’s how the entire first round order looks right now:
- White Sox
- Rays
- Twins
- Giants
- Pirates
- Royals
- Orioles
- Athletics
- Braves
- Rockies
- Nationals
- Angels
- Cardinals
- Marlins
- Diamondbacks
- Rangers
- Astros
- Reds
- Guardians
- Red Sox
- Padres
- Tigers
- Cubs
- Mariners
- Brewers
The MLB draft lottery was devised to disincentivize teams from “tanking” to land a top draft pick. The teams that failed to make the postseason are given a chance to land each of the top six picks, with weight given to teams that finished worse in the standings. Teams become ineligible for the lottery if they been selected in two consecutive seasons – so the Rockies, who finished with a league-worst 119 losses, were ineligible for the lottery after getting the #3 pick in 2024 and #4 pick in 2025. Teams are also ineligible if they are revenue-sharing payors and were selected the prior year, making the Angels and Nationals ineligible for the lottery this year.
UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky is the consensus top player available for next year’s draft, with many considering the top of next year’s draft class to be hitter-heavy.
