PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Chicago White Sox are done playing for first.
In the standings? Of course not.
Led by All-Star third baseman Miguel Vargas, the White Sox have emerged as one of the top surprises and are in AL Central contention after enduring three straight 100-loss seasons.
In the MLB draft? The White Sox have the No. 1 pick in the draft for Saturday's event in Philadelphia as part of All-Star Game weekend festivities.
The No. 1 pick belongs
to Chicago — after it lost 102 games last season and won the draft lottery — and perhaps a future star that can help the White Sox win their first World Series title since 2005 will get selected in the top spot.
There are no clear-cut No. 1 picks in this year's draft much like current Philadelphia Phillies slugger and 2026 All-Star Bryce Harper was in 2010.
The White Sox will likely pick one from the following three players: UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky, Texas high school shortstop Grady Emerson or Georgia Tech catcher Vahn Lackey.
MLB said Friday no amateur players are scheduled to attend the draft, which is the same as last year.
Here's a look at the most enticing prospects for the White Sox and the rest of the teams drafting early in the first round.
— Cholowsky. A 6-foot-2 right-handed hitter, he was a Golden Spikes finalist at UCLA and had a 1.088 OPS with 21 homers and 60 RBIs in his junior season.
— Lackey. The 21-year-old catcher didn't receive any Division I offers until his senior year of high school and has since blossomed into one of the top catching prospects in the draft out of Georgia Tech. The 6-foot-2, 215-pounder showed some versatility by also playing third base.
— Emerson. Just 18 years old, the 6-3, 185-pound shortstop bats left, throws right and is widely considered the best all-around player in the draft.
The White Sox are in win-now mode after years of rebuilding and could lean toward a college player such as Cholowsky. Cholowsky is a proven prospect with plenty of seasoning at a major college program and could help the White Sox faster, even maybe this season — except for the pitchers they may draft.
“Most of the guys we take, even if they played in college versus a high school pick, they haven’t thrown competitively in a while," White Sox director of player development Paul Janish said. “You have the draft in July, the minor-league season is over in early September. There’s not a huge window. You take all those things in consideration, really the motive is health. We’re going to get you as ready as you can be for next spring training to have a good first full pro season.”
Jim Thome helped changed the perception of the Phillies from long-time losers to championship contenders when he left Cleveland and signed a six-year, $85 million ahead of the 2003 season. Thome hit 47 homers in his first season, his 400th career homer the next in Citizens Bank Park's first season and now can enjoy another milestone in the city — his 18-year-old son, Landon, is a likely first-round pick.
The Nazareth Academy (Illinois) infielder, who is committed to Florida State, is ranked among the top 50 prospects.
“All the hard work, which at the end of the day, they do it all. As a dad, you sit back, you watch the journey," the elder Thome told MLB Network.
There are more familiar names that could be called during the draft.
Rutgers outfielder Peyton Bonds is MLB's career home run leader Barry Bonds' nephew. Houston first baseman Carsten Sabathia III is the son of Hall of Fame pitcher CC Sabathia. Gulliver Prep (Florida) shortstop Jacob Lombard is considered one of the top five available prospects and is the son of Detroit Tigers bench coach and former major leaguer George Lombard.
Here's the rest of the top 10 following Chicago for the start of the draft Saturday.
Tampa Bay picks second and Minnesota is third. San Francisco is fourth and Pittsburgh fifth. Kansas City, Baltimore, the Athletics, Atlanta and Colorado round out the top 10.
Baseball owners proposed banning high school players from signing with major league teams, raising the age for international amateurs and slashing the money spent on signing bonuses as part of the recent negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement.
The amateur draft for players residing in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico would be cut from 20 rounds to 12 beginning in 2027 under the proposal Major League Baseball made during a bargaining session with the players’ association. An identical 12-round draft would be started for international prospects, a proposal the union has rejected in the past.
Starting in 2028, a prospect for the amateur draft would have to be at least 20 years old by the Sept. 1 of his signing year and two years removed from the graduating year of his high school class — a restriction that also would eliminate players who completed their first year of junior college.
Since the draft began in 1965, more than 50 Hall of Famers have been selected by the team that eventually signed them. The Hall of Fame class of 2026 features two former draft picks: Jeff Kent was taken in the 20th round in 1989 by the Toronto Blue Jays; and Carlos Beltrán was a second-round pick by the Royals in 1995. The 1989 draft has now produced five future Hall of Famers, the most of any single draft in history, with Frank Thomas, Jeff Bagwell, Trevor Hoffman, Jim Thome and Kent having been selected.
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