Major League Baseball held their annual Draft Lottery Tuesday afternoon as part of the Winter Meetings in Dallas.
If teams had simply picked by record, worst to first, the Cubs would have picked 14th. Instead, by the lottery, their pick dropped to 17th.
Here is the Draft order for all the non-playoff teams:
Nationals
Angels
Mariners
Rockies
Cardinals
Pirates
Marlins
Blue Jays
Reds
White Sox
Athletics
Rangers
Giants
Rays
Red Sox
Twins
Cubs
Diamondbacks
The Cubs had a 0.68 percent chance at the top pick, so obviously their odds were low. But neither did they likely think their spot would drop three places. Another team that didn’t do well here was the Rockies, who had the best odds (22.45 percent) at the No. 1 pick, but instead dropped to fourth.
The big winners here are the Cardinals, who would otherwise have picked 13th, and the Mariners, who otherwise would have chosen 15th.
The White Sox, who had MLB’s worst record, were ineligible for a lottery pick and by the new Draft rules, could choose no higher than 10th. Same for the A’s, now with the 11th pick. Here’s the reason for that:
Teams that are “payor clubs” — ones that give revenue-sharing dollars — are not allowed to be selected in consecutive lotteries, and Chicago picked fifth overall in 2024. The A’s, who selected fourth overall in ‘24 and sixth in ‘23, are ineligible since “payee clubs” — teams that receive revenue-sharing dollars — cannot be selected in three consecutive lotteries. Furthermore, non-playoff teams that are ineligible for the lottery may not receive better than the 10th overall pick, so the White Sox and Athletics will draft 10th and 11th in 2025, respectively.
Here is the complete Draft order for next year:
unofficial 2025 MLB Draft order, lux-tax penalties not included:
1 WSH
2 LAA
3 SEA
4 COL
5 STL
6 PIT
7 MIA
8 TOR
9 CIN
10 CHW
11 OAK
12 TEX
13 SFG
14 TBR
15 BOS
16 MIN
17 CHC
18 ARZ
19 BAL
20 MIL
21 HOU
22 ATL
23 KCR
24 DET
25 SDP
26 PHI
27 CLE
28 NYM
29 NYY
30 LAD
— Taylor Blake Ward (@TaylorBlakeWard) December 10, 2024
The MLB Draft will take place July 13-15, 2025, in Atlanta as part of MLB’s All-Star festivities.