The San Francisco Giants haven’t made any moves at the Winter Meetings, but it’s still been a productive week for them because of what happened on Tuesday at the draft lottery. Despite having just the 12th-best
odds heading into the lottery, the Giants had good news roll their way, and landed the fourth overall pick in July’s 2026 MLB Draft. That’s a huge move up for a team that, based on record, should have had the 15th overall pick instead.
It’s also rare territory: it’s only the sixth time in franchise history that they’ve held a top-five pick. The other five: Will Clark, who went second overall in 1985; Matt Williams, who went third overall the following year; Jason Grilli, who in 1997 was the only other Giants fourth overall pick; Buster Posey, who was taken with the fifth pick in 2008; and Joey Bart, who was select second overall in 2018.
Furthermore, it’s the team’s first top-10 selection since they chose Hunter Bishop with the No. 10 pick in 2019.
While it’s far too early to guess who the Giants will select, the 2026 draft is currently viewed as position-player heavy, at least at the very top. In MLB Pipeline’s recent ranking of the top prospects eligible for the draft, hitters occupy nine of the top 12 spots, with shortstops holding down the top four positions. Baseball America wasted no time putting together a mock draft following the lottery, and projects the Giants to use the fourth pick on lefty outfielder AJ Gracia, who spent two years at Duke and will play his upcoming junior campaign at Virginia.
Currently, UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky is overwhelmingly seen as the top player in the draft, and the favorite to be taken first overall by the Chicago White Sox. That said, because of MLB’s slot bonus system, the top overall prospect isn’t always the top overall pick; just last year, for that matter, Ethan Holliday was viewed by many as the top prospect in the draft, but slid to No. 4. Furthermore, a whole lot can change between now and July 11.
Who they’ll pick is a topic for another day and, as a reminder, you can’t trade draft picks in baseball, so beating the lottery odds won’t help them put together a more compelling trade package in the coming weeks. For now, let’s just celebrate a nice little win.
