The 2026 MLB Draft Lottery took place today, and your Texas Rangers did not land in the top six picks. They will instead be picking 16th — two spots later than they would have picked otherwise, as the Kansas
City Royals and San Francisco Giants, who had worse records than the Rangers, did end up in the top six.
The top six are as follows:
1 — Chicago White Sox
2 — Tampa Bay Rays
3 — Minnesota Twins
4 — San Francisco Giants
5 — Pittsburgh Pirates
6 — Kansas City Royals
The Rangers have only picked 16th overall once before — in 1990, when they selected Creighton lefthander Dan Smith. Smith only had 17 major league appearances. The Rangers that year had hoped Todd Van Poppel, the consensus top prospect in the draft, would fall to them, but he went #14 to the Oakland A’s.
Oklahoma State slugger Jeromy Burnitz went to the Mets one pick after the Rangers took Smith, and had a nice career. The next college pitcher taken after Smith went #20 overall to the Baltimore Orioles — Stanford righthander Mike Mussina.
