White Sox win MLB Draft Lottery and will have 1st overall pick in 2026! (Full results!)

White Sox win MLB Draft Lottery and will have 1st overall pick in 2026! (Full results!)

Welcome everyone to the 2025 MLB Draft lottery coming to you from Orlando, Florida. We are live. A major day in Major League Baseball. We’re going to find out who’s going to get the number one overall pick in the upcoming MLB draft. We’re talking future faces of an organization decided in order tonight. We’re in this gorgeous room in the hotel. You see representatives of 15 major league teams on standby. It’s Greg Aminger with our resin GM Rick Khan, formerly the Chicago White Sox. He’s been through this draft lottery process before. For years, Rick, if you had the worst record in baseball, you knew you would get the number one pick. Now, because of the lottery, we can expect the unexpected, can’t we? Yeah, it truly has become expect the unexpected on this day. You know, a lot of scouts compare the draft to Christmas morning. What happens today impacts the size of those gifts sometimes. You’ve seen in recent years, just last year, the Seattle Mariners moved from 15 all the way up to number three, wound up taking Kate Anderson out LSU, one of the premier college arms of the draft, adding to that system. The Washington Nationals jumped from four to number one overall, which magnified the size of their bonus pool, which they’re able to have a ripple effect throughout the third, fourth, and fifth round of last year. Odds are everything. If you’re at home on your couch and you’re wondering your favorite team, what are their odds of getting the number one overall pick? You should be excited. If you’re in the south side of Chicago, the White Socks have the best odds at over 27%. Then it’s the Twins, the Pirates at almost 17%. The O’s over 9%, the Athletics at 6.6%. Now, your eyes might be gravit gravitating to the bottom right portion of your screen. There are three teams that did not make the postseason yet are ineligible for the number one overall pick. Rick, explain why. Yeah, those three teams, the Colorado Rockies, Washington Nationals, and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, the rules pro proclude your team from picking three years in a row inside the lottery. So, Colorado picking number four and number three the last two years is ineligible for this year’s lottery. Washington and Anaheim as revenue sharing payor clubs, meaning they contribute to revenue sharing, are not allowed to pick in the lottery two years in a row and therefore ineligible for 2020. There are so many details that we’re trying to get you to understand. There’s one more important note. This is a unique lottery situation for one specific team and that’s the New York Mets, right? That is correct. The New York Mets were a club that was over the second revenue tax luxury tax threshold last year and as a result, their pick, if it’s not in the top six, is subject to fall 10 in this year’s draft. As a result, the Mets could leave here tonight with the number one pick overall or fall the way to 27. Again, it’s a lot, but it’s very important to follow along. Once again, there were 18 teams that did not make the postseason, but only 15 are eligible for the number one overall pick in the draft. Those 15 teams are represented tonight. Let’s meet those represent representatives uh for the Houston Astros. It’s their manager. Yeah, Joe Espatada is here. He’s been the skipper since 2024. We have another manager with us tonight representing the Kansas City Royals. Matt Couturo has done terrific work there. Led them to the playoffs in 2015. The Rangers have Elvis Andrews here tonight. He’s the all-time leader in stolen bases in their organization. Broke into the big leagues at the age of 20. The Marlins, their representative is their longtime catcher, Charles Johnson. Spent seven of his 12 big league seasons with the Fish, a two-time all-star, four-time Gold Glover. Representing the Tampa Bay Rays, Brett Phillips, we all remember that walk-off hit against Kenley Jansen in game four of the 2020 Fall Classic. We welcome Brett here tonight. The Athletics have Joe Rudy as their representative. He spent 11 of his 16 seasons with the A’s, a three-time all-star, three-time Gold Glover. For the Pittsburgh Pirates, it’s their area supervisor, John Kuranka. He spent four seasons in the big leagues with the Cubs, the Rangers, and the Marlins. Representing the Chicago White Socks, former number one overall pick back in 1977, Hall of Famer Harold Baines. for the Minnesota Twins. One of the best change ups we’ve ever seen. A lefty who spent eight seasons of his 12 with the Twins. Two-time Sai Young award winner Johan Santana. For the Baltimore Orioles, it’s Mike Devo. He spent seven of his 12 seasons with the O’s. He was the NLCS MVP with the Atlanta Braves in 1995. Representing the Atlanta Braves, their longtime manager, Brian Snickers here. He led the Braves to the 2021 World Series title. Representing the St. Louis Cardinals, longtime center fielder Ray Langford. He spent 13 of his 14 seasons in the bigs with the birds. Had a terrific career. Representing the Arizona Diamondbacks, third baseman Jake Lamb. Seven of his 10 seasons were with Arizona. He was an all-star in 2017 when he had 30 homers. Representing the San Francisco Giants, it’s Randy Win. He played five of his 13 seasons with the Giants. He hit 290 in over 660 games in San Fran. And representing the New York Mets, he played seven of his 20 seasons with the club, 435 career home runs. The great Carlos Beltron is here tonight. Well, it’s not every day when you do the draft lottery, you get to talk to a guy that was taken number one overall. When you hear the word draft, Harold Baines, Hall of Famer, what memory comes to mind for you? uh takes me back to 48 years ago when I got drafted. I didn’t have an agent. I I got a call the night before. Um the White Sock said possibly they would take me uh tomorrow. So they asked me did I have a representative. I said no. So we went in the yellow pages and looked up a local lawyer and he I got a call the next day. So we that was my representative. Wow. What a story. No agent. How times have changed. Harold, thank you so much for being here tonight. If I get a chance to catch up with Brian Snicker, I have to take the opportunity. Snit, good to see you, man. Uh, you spent your entire baseball life with one organization, an organization that was built on young talent. How important is this night for your club, the Atlanta Braves? I think it’s very important. I think we see the impact that these young guys in this draft are making, how quick they can get to the major leagues. And I think we all know if you’ve been around baseball, it’s the drafting player developments, the heart and soul of what we do in this sport. Well, we are about to get it going. And the MLB draft lottery is just moments away. When we come back, we have a major announcement from MLB Network and USA Baseball. Details when I come back live on MLB Network. The MLB Draft Lottery is presented by Nike. And welcome back to the 2025 MLB draft lottery presented by Nike. Earlier today, MLB manager of baseball operations Jack Clark was on hand to individually select the ping pong balls for the final draft order. And Shawn Pansen, US private leader from Price Waterhouse Cooper, walked the envelopes of each team to the podium as we get ready to reveal the 2026 draft lottery order. And joining me now, the president of baseball operations for the San Francisco Giants, Buster Posey. Buster, your team has a 1% chance of getting the number one overall pick. This is the fun part of having a draft lottery, right? It is. Yeah. I mean, I think ideally, you know, you’re hoping you’re not in the draft lottery for for playing well during the season, but no, it adds some excitement around it for sure and see how it shakes out. And obviously, you guys are looking for upward mobility. want to move up in the draft order. So, it could be a big night for you guys because you know as well as anyone as a former first round pick, the disparity between a 15th overall pick and a number five pick, it’s a big deal. It is. Yeah. I mean, I think you obviously the higher you pick in the draft, the the better crop of players you’re you’re picking from, but at the same time, we’ve seen over the years that that you can get great players from different parts of the draft. So, it’s our job as a scouting department, our scouting department, to do our homework and and make sure we get it right. I’m so happy to have you here for a couple reasons. Obviously, 2008 was a special year for you. You won the Golden Spikes Award, which goes to the best amateur player in the country in baseball and and that has great history. We are excited here at MLB Network to join forces with this award, the Golden Spikes Award, and we are going to televise the 48th edition of the Golden Spikes Award. uh next year. So, this is a big deal for the network. We’re going to provide uh coverage throughout the amateur baseball season. When you look back at what that award meant to you in 2008, what comes to mind? Well, I mean, the first where my brain goes to start with is growing up in South Georgia, uh always kept my eye on FSU and JD Drew came through and won the award before me and so I I kind of had like it’d be great to play baseball at FSU one day and never imagined that I would have actually won the award, but it’s such a cool honor. I mean, you you play with so many different kids growing up and you see the amount of competition just continue to get better and better and then to to be honored with an award like that um as a college baseball player, it’s it’s our Heisman and we’re excited to carry that award presentation live on MLB Network next year. Buster Posie, best of luck tonight. Okay, thanks a lot. All right, time to make my way up to the uh podium because we’re getting closer and closer to beginning the MLB draft lottery. Once again, the odds very important, very important. The Chicago White Socks over 27% likelihood they get the number one pick. Then it’s followed by the Twins at over 22%, the Pirates, the Orioles, the A’s. Once again, there are only 15 teams eligible for the number one pick. Three teams ineligible because of details that Rick walked us through earlier in the show. It is about time to begin the 2025 MLB draft lottery. And this is a very interesting way to begin. A playoff team will begin at number 18. The 18th overall selection in the upcoming MLB draft goes to the Cincinnati Reds. Let me explain why. It has to do with the New York Mets. Again, the Reds were a playoff team and they were not in the lottery. The only way they could have the 18th pick were if the Mets were outside the top six. That means bad news Mets fans, you will not have a top six lottery pick. The Mets will receive the 27th overall selection. So once again, the Reds have the 18th pick. Moving on to the 17th overall selection, the upcoming MLB draft. That pick goes to the Houston Astros. The Houston Astros have the 17th pick. They had a less than 1% chance of getting the number one overall pick. They stayed in the 17th spot. They remained there. That was their slot before the draft started. This is the earliest draft pick for the Stros since they drafted 17th overall in 2017. The Houston Astros with the 17th overall pick. Moving on to the 16th overall selection in the upcoming MLB draft, and that goes to the Texas Rangers. The Rangers get this pick. They had a little bit over of a 1% chance of getting the number one overall selection. They went from the 14 slot down two to number 16. This is the sixth time in the last seven drafts that the Rangers have had a top 16 pick. Some of those picks include Wyatt Langford, Kumar Rocker, and Jack Lighter. The Rangers at number 16. On to number 15. And the 15th spot in the upcoming MLB draft goes to the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Diamondbacks with this pick. They had a bit of over one and a half% chance of getting the number one overall pick. They went from the 13th slot down two to the 15th slot. This is the fourth time in the last six draft that the Diamondbacks will have a top 15 pick. They use those picks in the likes of Tommy Troy, Drew Jones, and Jordan Lawler. the Diamondbacks at number 15. We move on to number 14 in the upcoming MLB draft. The 14th spot goes to the Miami Marlins. The Fish have this spot. Uh the Marlins had a 1.85% chance of getting the number one pick. They went from the ninth spot down five to the 14th pick. This is the second time the Marlins have had a 14th pick in a draft. They drafted Jose Fernandez with the 14th overall selection in the 2011 MLB draft. So, the Marlins at number 14. At number 13, 13th overall selection in the upcoming MLB draft goes to the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals get this spot. They had over a 2% chance of getting the number one pick. They went from the eighth slot down to the 13th pick. This is the third straight year the Cardinals have had a top 13 pick in the draft. They drafted Liam Doyle with the fifth overall selection last year and JJ Weatherhold with the seventh pick in 2024. So the Cardinals at number 13 in front of them at number 12 the Los Angeles Angels. The Angels land this spot. Uh they were ineligible for a lottery pick. They’re a a payor club which means they would uh give revenue sharing dollars. Uh therefore, this is the eighth straight season the Angels have had a top 15 pick. This is the fourth time the Angels have had the 12th overall pick. The last time they had it was in 2004 when they landed Jared Weaver, the longtime right-hander. So, it’s the Angels at 12. In front of them at number 11 in the upcoming MLB draft, it is the Washington Nationals. The Nationals have this spot uh ineligible for a lottery pick uh because of all the details I just showed you before with the Angels. Uh this is the fourth time the Nationals have had the 11th overall pick. They had it in 2021 when they drafted Brady House. So the Nationals are at number 11. We’re getting to the top 10 in the upcoming MLB draft. And at number 10, we find the Colorado Rockies. The Rockies land this pick. The Rockies are once again ineligible for a lottery pick. Uh this is the seventh straight draft. The Rockies are picking in the top 10. This is the fourth time the Rockies have had the 10th pick in the draft. They drafted Ian Stewart in 03, David Doll in 2012, and Gabriel Hughes in 2022. So, it’s the Rockies at number 10. We move on inside the top 10. at number nine for the upcoming MLB draft. That spot goes to the Atlanta Braves. The Braves at number nine. The Atlanta Braves had a 4.54% chance of getting the number one overall selection. They went from the sixth slot to the ninth pick. This is the first time the Braves have had a top nine pick since 2019 when they took Shay Langalers with the ninth overall selection in the draft. So, the Atlanta Braves are at number nine. We move on to number eight in the upcoming MLB draft. That spot goes to the Athletics. The A’s get this pick inside the top 10. Uh they had a 6 and a half% chance of getting the number one pick. They went from the fifth spot the fifth slot down to the eighth pick. It’s the third time in the last four drafts the A’s have had a top eight pick. They drafted Jacob Wilson sixth overall in 2023. and Nick Curts, who ended up being a superstar rookie, fourth overall in 2024. All right, we’re going to give you one more before we go to break. The seventh overall pick in the upcoming MLB draft goes to the Baltimore Orioles. The Orioles land the number seven overall pick. They had over a 9% chance of getting the number one overall selection. They went from the fourth slot to the seventh pick. This is the first time the O’s have drafted in the top seven since 2022 and they took J Holiday with the number one overall pick. The last time they had the seventh pick was in 2003 when they took Nick Marquis. That was a day ago. Okay, so here we have 18 through7. The remaining teams still in play for the number one overall selection in the upcoming MLB draft. The White Socks, the Twins, the Pirates, the Rays, the Giants, and the Kansas City Royals. Who is going to get that number one selection? Stay tuned. We’re back right after this live on MLB Network. Once again, we have six spots remaining. Take a look at the teams that are in play for the number one overall pick in the upcoming MLB draft. the White Socks, the Twins, the Pirates, the Rays, the Giants, and the Royals. Uh back here live on MLB Network. Uh the Rays rep Brett Phillips said that if the Rays get the number one pick, he’s going to do the airplane. Is that right? You’re going to do the airplane again? I cannot wait to see that. We’ll we’ll find out. Uh it is time to get back to the MLB draft lottery and get back to it at number six. The sixth overall selection in the upcoming MLB draft goes to the Kansas City Royals. The Royals land the sixth pick. They had less than a 1% chance of getting the number one overall selection. They went from the 16th slot to the sixth overall pick. That is an amazing jump. So, a great night for the Kansas City Royals. Moving on, we’re to the top five, folks. The fifth overall selection in the upcoming MLB draft. It goes to the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pirates land the number five pick. They had a 16.8% chance of getting that top spot. They went from the third slot to the fifth pick in the draft. This is the first time the Pirates have had a top five pick in the draft since 2023 when they took a guy named Paul Skins. The Pirates at number five. On to number four, the team with the fourth overall selection, the upcoming MLB draft, the San Francisco Giants. We just talked to their president of baseball operations, Buster Posey. He has to be happy with this news. They had a 1% chance of getting the top pick. They went from the 15th slot to the fourth overall pick. It’s the fifth time they’ve had a top four pick in the draft. The last time they had it uh was in 2018. They took Joey Bart second overall. So, the Giants at number four, we move on to the number three overall selection, the upcoming MLB draft. That spot goes to the Minnesota Twins. The Twins are at number three. Johan, looks like you did your job. This is a team that had a 22% chance of getting the number one overall pick. Uh they went from the second slot to the third pick, so I’m sure they were really wanting that number one spot. But here the Twins are at number three, which means there are only two teams left. And I know Brett, we might be seeing some theatrics right now. It’s the Rays and the White Socks. The White Socks of the Rays. Which one will be the number one overall pick? It’s time to start at number two. The team with the second overall pick in the upcoming MLB draft, the Tampa Bay Rays. Which means the number one pick in the upcoming MLB draft goes to the Chicago White Socks. The White Socks will land the top pick. The board has been filled at number 18. It started with the Reds. It worked our way up to number 12 with the Angels. And at number one, you see the Chicago White Socks. Their GM Chris Gets will chat with me live when we come back on MLB Network. The MLB Draft Lottery is presented by Nike. A big big night if you’re a fan of the Chicago White Socks. The White Socks will be picking at number one. and they won the MLB draft lottery. Last time they picked a number one, their representative, Harold Baines, was the topic. The Hall of Famer was here tonight. So is their GM, Chris gets. Chris, congratulations. This is a massive deal for your organization. Yeah, it’s an opportunity to just kind of boost what we have going on right now. I mean, it’s it’s an honor. I mean, it’s a a huge responsibility. And, you know, our group, I mean, there I’m just so happy for everyone, quite honestly. And uh you know going into this whole thing, you know, you kind of prepared for all different uh scenarios emotionally. Uh but man, I can’t understate how big of a deal this is. Explain a bit more on it to our audience. What freedom you have to pick with the have the number one pick in this draft. Well, I mean, I’m still learning more and more about the draft. I’m I’m getting familiar with some of the top names. Um, and you know, it looks like a a at the top of the draft that it’s a really uh impressive one, but on top of that, when you when you look at the pool space that that that you’re given and a chance to really, you know, walk away from a from a draft class and and and do some damage, you know, bring in some real talent. So, uh, yeah, I look forward to diving in further, man. And and, uh, yeah, I’m just excited for our fan base and the people that are working for the Chicago White Sox and adding to an already young core that is so impressive. I mean, Coulson Montgomery among others, you’re starting to see the pieces in the south side of Chicago. No, I mean I you know last year as those players were were making their way to the big leagues and performing really well for for and we know that’s not an easy thing to do and you know you begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel and and to to bring in now a top pick uh you know to this group. I mean it’s it’s just a big deal. It really is brilliant move having a number one overall pick as your club rep Harold Baines. That was a brilliant move by you. The mojo was working for you. You got the pick. Well done, bud. Yeah, we did the math, you know. Chris gets the GM of the White Socks. Thank you so much for watching the MLB draft lottery. There was suspense at the end. We thought we were going to see Brett Phillips do the airplane. Instead, the number one pick goes to the White Socks.

The Chicago White Sox secure the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 MLB Draft in the MLB Draft Lottery hosted by Greg Amsinger of @MLBNetwork.

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