Both the National League Central and NL West were decided Monday, a day later than expected, with the Brewers defeating the Cubs and the Dodgers upending the Rockies in Game 163s. As a result, not only is this year’s playoff picture clearer, but we now know the full first-round draft order for 2019. The Orioles were the runaway “winners” for the top choice, setting them up to pick No. 1 for the first time since they chose right-hander Ben McDonald in 1989, but things were more tightly contested thereafter. For teams that finished with the same record this past regular season, the higher selection will go to the club which finished with the worse mark in 2017.
Here’s the full order:
1.) Orioles (47-115)
2.) Royals (58-104)
3.) White Sox (62-100)
4.) Marlins (63-98)
5.) Tigers (64-98)
6.) Padres (66-96)
7.) Reds (67-95)
8.) Rangers (67-95)
9.) Braves (comp pick for not signing 2018 first-rounder Carter Stewart)
10.) Giants (73-89)
11.) Blue Jays (73-89)
12.) Mets (77-85)
13.) Twins (78-84)
14.) Phillies (80-82)
15.) Angels (80-82)
16.) Diamondbacks (82-80)
17.) Nationals (82-80)
18.) Pirates (82-79)
19.) Cardinals (88-74)
20.) Mariners (89-73)
21.) Braves (90-72)
22.) Rays (90-72)
23.) Rockies (91-72)
24.) Indians (91-71)
25.) Dodgers (92-71)
26.) Diamondbacks (comp pick for not signing 2018 first-rounder Matt McLain)
27.) Cubs (95-68)
28.) Brewers (96-67)
29.) Athletics (97-65)
30.) Yankees (100-62)
31.) Dodgers (comp pick for not signing 2018 first-rounder J.T. Ginn)
32.) Astros (103-59)
33.) Red Sox (108-54)
This round appears to be etched in stone. Under the rules of the current collective bargaining agreement, which the owners and players agreed to prior to 2017, a team can’t lose its highest first-round selection if it signs a free agent who rejected a qualifying offer. A club with two first-rounders would lose the second of those picks if it’s not a revenue sharing recipient, pays the competitive-balance tax and signs a qualified free agent, as Jim Callis of MLB.com points out, but that likely won’t apply to any of the Braves, D-backs or Dodgers – all of whom are slated to have a pair of firsts in 2019.
Ok…Cubs Dodgers…who wins?
I don’t think it will happen this year
Don’t think the Chicago nor Colorado can take down the brewers with their current high
I meant in tomorrow’s wild card game
Pretty sure the Dodgers aren’t going to get a chance to beat the Cubs in the Wild Card…
Oh, you’re in fantasy land. The rest of us will watch the Rockies and the Cubs.
Cubs, of course!
The Bears
How about them cubbies
Can you pick an owner as the first pick?
Detroit needs a new play by play announcer for TV after an in booth brawl left both announcers suspended indefinitely. Wish we could pick one up in the draft or by trade. Our Hall of Fame Announcer, the late Ernie Harwell, is the only announcer ever to be traded.
Bobby Witt Jr….hopefully he develops quickly with no injury setbacks.
O’s genuinely deserve the #1 overall pick. (didn’t try to tank.) Respect they tried to go for it in the beginning. Hope they knock it out of the park. Good luck, O’s fans.
Yeah they genuinely suck lol.
Nice of you to say xabial. But since they were so so bad, might we get two picks?
I think the teams that could not sign their first round picks should wait until after the first round for them to pick. It is not fair for the other teams that they can not sign their own draft picks.
Don’t forget that (from my understanding) the Braves didn’t know about Stewart’s injury until AFTER they drafted him and were able to do a full physical. Pre-draft the information wasn’t there. So in your scenario you’d punish a team even if the player they drafted had a serious undisclosed injury????
Wouldn’t you think that Atlanta would rather he’d been healthy (instead of waiting a year to draft someone else AND losing a year of development AND dropping a spot in the draft order!)?
With the Braves situation, then the school should release full medical reports.
What about the Giants, thinking they get the 9th pick, and then they lost it, because of the Braves.
Not like the Braves #9 slot was a surprise to the Giants.
Everybody body knew where the Braves were slotting in the 2019 draft on July 6th.
The Giants were not fooled and did not lose anything.
The school legally can’t release the injury information without the players consent, those are private medical records and protected information.
Stewart had the best pitch in the draft – and with his size and development ATL was lucky to have someone of that caliber to get to them at #8. Disappointing would be an understatement for AA not to sign his first Braves draft pick, but there was no need in throwing your draft because of an undisclosed injury that could affect his ability to throw the pitch he was drafted for. Also, you lose that slotted draft money, meaning you can’t invest that allotment amount into the other picks presumably giving them overslot values.
Brewers are going straight to World Series guys. But Houston got my pick to win the fall classic.
Did they buy tickets?
Yelich went 3-for-4 with an RBI falling two homers and an RBI short in his quest for the triple crown. Cubs fans would have probably been complaining all way to China, had he gotten it, since game-163, but Yelich (147 games) played less games than Baez (160 games) Don’t know about the World Series, but Brewers got the NL MVP
I wish the mlb would have a lottery like the NBA where every non-playoff team was subject to it. Not saying make all odds even but also let’s not guarantee a top pick for busting.
O’s didn’t bust—not once—in a most excruciating season. Class.
I’d agree with that. The marlins on the other hand..
AL Central representing strong!
Yeah it was a great and tantalizing season there. All teams deserving!
I’m in the camp that the draft order should be reversed. Tanking teams are a problem now.
That would completely destroy competitive balance
The MLB gives the Cardinals free picks every year. I don’t think they care all that much about competitive balance.
How can you destroy competitive balance when it does not exist?
@Col. Taylor, for entire the 21st century, MLB has the best competitive balance out of all the sports by basically any metric (different champions, league championship appearances,
Since 2001
MLB – 12 different champions (40% of teams)
NHL – 11 different champions (35% of teams)
NFL – 11 different champions (34% of teams)
NBA – 8 different champions (27% of teams)
MLB – 19 teams made it to World Series (63%)
NHL – 18 teams made it to Stanley Cup Finals (58%)
NFL – 18 teams made it to Super Bowl (56%)
NBA – 12 teams made it to NBA Finals (40%)
NHL – 28 teams made it to conference finals (90%)
MLB – 26 teams made it to League Championship Series (87%)
NBA – 24 teams made it to conference finals (80%)
NFL – 23 teams made it to conference championships (72%)
Wow. You just got smoked. Maybe next time you will get the facts BEFORE typing.
Not if done the right way. You could invert the draft order starting with the team with the best record to MISS the playoffs. Right now, you have winning teams and the best amateurs going to the worst teams. This would solve the problems of teams getting stuck in the .500 range. Losing teams would need to build up through trades or free agency n order to earn top picks.
Plus, it has always bothered me with teams getting rewarded for losing. It doesn’t work that way in life. You don’t give the highest Christmas bonus to your salesman with the smallest yearly sales. We need to stop rewarding mediocrity.
You absolutely destroy the game with that idea. It already has an issue with not enough competitive tsama
That would be terrible but what should be done is alternation, after the first round order should reverse and then 3rd round reversed again etc. Also remove a lot of the comp picks, they aren’t fair, like why should the cards get a comp pick just because people don’t live Around the park, they have a huge fan base and a lot of money- and why reward owners like the a’s who have made a concerted effort to pocket profits rather than spend on the team.
3 more losses and the Padres would have been drafting 4th. But at least they still have their dignity!
Just glad the poor, small market Cardinals will get their extra pick after the first round as always.
Yes, the league should penalize them for having a great fan base that shows up for games every year. Cry me a river.
They get that pick because they are considered a small market, ie: a small fan base. Your argument is a good one if you want their pick taken away.
And we have another idiot…
I dont like the compensation picks. So what you didnt sign your first rounder. Why should you be granted a do over?
Do you really understand why they exist?
Compensation picks for not signing a guy should be slotted after the 30th pick. That’s proper punishment for not signing the 1st rounder the year before.
Punishment? Wow. You think much?
^Most users on this website know you do not. You just shoot blindfolded.
Well, maybe before typing in this case, you should have thought. Since you dont, let me clean this up for you.
So, should team be “punished” for not signing a player post draft if
-injury after the draft, prior to signing,
-player has agent who provides bad advice, even considering slot system,
-player has incident with the law post draft, prior to signing,
-player decides to balk at draft and goes back into school?
Yes, since the scouts should have seen all this beforehand, correct?
So I ask…..you think much??
Compensation picks for failure to sign are so all teams can remain well enough stocked with cost controlled talent (provided they can develop it) to keep the league competitive.
The idea that there should be any concept of punishment involved in the equation is frankly just bizarre, honestly
Glad you finally came back with something instead of your usual wimpy rhetoric.
– The “injury” didn’t stop Anthopoulos from drafting a position player in Toronto recovering from TJ surgery, Max Pentecost. The Braves had that injured player and “did not know” the player was injured. If you believe they didn’t know, you’re as gullible as others say you are. AA also has a knack for not signing 1st round picks. This is a pattern and it’s nothing new.
– Player agent providing bad advice? How bad could the advice really be for a player slated to lock in millions before their first professional ballgame? You feel bad for them signing below slot value? Makes one of us.
– Player has incident before the draft? Well, let the drafter beware.
– Player decides to go to school? Again, let the drafter beware.
Why do you feel sorry for organizations all of a sudden? They take your money and you ask “how high”?
Now that I’ve done all the thinking for you I’ll leave you with a you’re welcome and good luck.
The Padres could have drafted Justin Verlander but went with Matt Bush instead because they were afraid Verlander would be difficult to sign… Defeating the purpose of even having a draft because the team that theoretically needed the best talent the most felt forced away from taking the beat talent available…
Hence the introduction of the compensation rule, so teams no longer had to worry about who they could take a chance on
You really shouldn’t have opinions this strong word on subjects you don’t seem to want to have any understanding of…
They weren’t afraid Verlander would have been difficult to sign. Their scouts wanted to take Jered Weaver. He was the one who owners thought would be difficult to sign.
My mistake, but same theory. Not being able to risk taking high end talent because of non-baseball concerns defeats the point of a draft in the first place
Petrie, you cant argue with someone who isnt smart enough realize they are wrong. The fact he can only cite one example is laughable.
By his logic, he buys a car, car motor blows 2 weeks later, its his fault, since “buyer beware” applies. We should “punish” him.
I am sure he is quite the fine anti establishment, anti corporate, quality employee to the local gasoline chain….I am sure he is quite the expert there. Knows everything, does nothing
That giants tank job moved them up 2 spots in the draft
Are the O’s projected to get a pitcher? If so, I feel bad for him..