Major League Baseball conducted its third annual draft lottery this afternoon at the Winter Meetings. The Nationals won the lottery and will pick first overall. They’ll be followed by the Angels and Mariners. Washington had just above a 10% chance of securing the top pick, the fourth-highest odds.
Here’s the first round order:
- Nationals
- Angels
- Mariners
- Rockies
- Cardinals
- Pirates
- Marlins
- Blue Jays
- Reds
- White Sox
- Athletics
- Rangers
- Giants
- Rays
- Red Sox
- Twins
- Cubs
- Diamondbacks
- Astros
- Braves
- Orioles
- Brewers
- Royals
- Tigers
- Padres
- Phillies
- Mets
- Guardians
- Yankees
- Dodgers
As part of the Players Association’s efforts to reduce the incentive for non-competitive teams to lose games, the latest collective bargaining agreement introduced a lottery to determine the top six overall selections. A team’s odds of landing a higher pick are still weighted in favor of the clubs with the worst records, although the Rockies and Marlins had identical chances (22.5% apiece) of landing the top selection.
All non-playoff teams ostensibly have a chance to win the lottery. However, the CBA also prevents a team that is not a revenue sharing recipient from landing within the top six in consecutive seasons. No team can get a lottery pick more than two years in a row. That ruled out the White Sox and Athletics this year. Chicago is not a revenue sharing recipient and picked fifth last year, while the A’s were in the top six in both 2023 and ’24.
The Sox were not allowed to pick higher than 10th, while the A’s were capped at 11th. That’s despite the White Sox having the worst season of all time that would’ve placed them among the three likeliest teams to pick first. That increased the odds for every team but was especially beneficial to Colorado and Miami (from a probability perspective) by pushing their chances of the #1 pick north of 20%. Unfortunately for those teams, the balls didn’t bounce their way. The Angels and Nationals were the other teams with at least a 10% shot.
Seattle and St. Louis come away as big winners. The Mariners went 85-77 and had the second-best record of any non-playoff team. St. Louis had the fourth-best mark for clubs that didn’t get to the postseason. They nevertheless were fortunate to spring into the top five. It’s a particularly disappointing outcome for Miami, who didn’t land a lottery pick at all despite sharing the best shot at the first selection. The only silver lining is that they’ll remain eligible for lottery picks for at least 2026 and ’27 if they don’t make the playoffs.
Teams that exceeded the third tier of luxury penalization have their top picks dropped by 10 spots unless that selection lands within the top six. (In that instance, the club’s second-highest pick would move back.) MLB has yet to officially announce the 2024 tax data, but it is believed that the Mets, Dodgers and Yankees are the only clubs that surpassed the $277MM threshold for the pick to be dropped. All those teams made the playoffs and weren’t eligible for the lottery anyhow.
The lottery only comes into play for the first round of the draft. From the second round onwards, pick order is determined in inverse order of the prior season’s standings, aside from compensatory and competitive balance selections.
Baseball America published its most recent Top 100 draft prospects in September. As always, that’s worth a full read. Texas A&M outfielder Jace LaViolette topped BA’s list, though there’ll obviously be plenty of changes to the board as next spring’s amateur baseball season gets underway.
Rigged to make the Beltway series the Holliday series
8 years on Fried. Yikes.
My bad, wrong chat.
@ horaceallen. I put up a like anyway. 🙂
Dang. Nats going to add Ethan Holiday to those OF’s!
Holiday may not be the #1. He had a very weak summer and there’s pretty much a consensus that he can’t stay at short. There are about five elite prospects right now and he’s not first among equals.
Given the Nats have CJ Abrams and 2024 1st rounder Seaver King at SS….they can move Holliday to 2nd or 3rd if they select him.
Ethan Holliday is going to be a big time player. Congrats Nats fans.
Hes going 2, its going to be LaViolette
What are you an Angel fan? Why would the Nationals draft another outfielder?
Where you think Brady House plays big dawg? Quarterback?
LOL hate to break it to you but House is a bust.
And house is a 3b.
Because only one of their 4 OF had more than 168 PA last season, several of them may not make it long term, and it takes years for draft picks to get to the majors. Teams don’t pick to fill immediate needs. this is not the NFL or NBA. Its baseball. If they think an OF is the best player or most affordable or whatever is their priority they will take him.
Great for the lecture. Holliday is the best prospect in the draft. And no you don’t continue to draft the same position in the top of the draft every year.
I wouldn’t say House is a bust, yet. Still a top 100 prospect, I believe. Now, Elijah Green, he’s a bust.
Unless you do. What are the Nationals priorities in draft picks and why?
With their 1st pick in the draft the Nats have taken
SS
OF
OF
SS
SP
SP
Well their President just said to take the best player available.
Bust was to harsh. He isn’t preventing anyone from replacing him.
@metsin4 you never use the top five picks in the draft to draft for position. You pick the best player available with those spots every time, you can always trade to fill positions later.
No kidding. You do realize Ethan Holliday is one of the best draft prospects to ever come down the pipeline. Jackson Holiday went first and became the MLB overall prospect the day he was drafted. His brother is considered a higher ceiling then him and a better prospect.
Yeah because most of the ones that started in the majors won’t be the OF going forward. Only Young was on the team most of the year and had a non-recurring strange injury causing him to miss time.
Arnold is the pick at 1.1
If he breaks out enough to warrant that i would be ecstatic but not counting on it
Look at the Mariners with the 3rd overall pick
It’s cool but doesn’t affect the mariners until like 5 years from now
Unless they draft a college pitcher. Then you’re looking at 1-2. Or a massive trade next offseason
Has a huge impact. Laviolette, Cannarella, Arnold are all examples of guys who could be up in 2026. If they go with a high school guy, it’s massive talent. It makes their comp pick (around 35) and any of their prospects more appealing for them to trade for guys to help them this year knowing you basically get a guaranteed top 100 prospect in July. It’s massive for Seattle.
Mariners could use it. Have you seen our hitting? NO WHAT I’M SAYIN ?
That’s nice.
What a fiasco.
Large markets should not be part of the lottery. Ever.
Impossible. You’d have to come up with a concrete definition of what “Large” is then have the entire league debate why they are/aren’t.
It’s not brain surgery, despite certain people trying to make it be.
Okay then, lay out your definition right here for all of us.
Brain surgery is a terrible comp it’s not subjective. Large market is.
Subjective? If you can’t tell who the large markets are in MLB, you really need to follow another sport.
And yet you’ve been asked twice and named none. Sounds super easy
I’m literally just waiting for you to name a large market team so I can then state your whole dividing of teams by market is patently ridiculous
Or study geography
Large markets would need to be objectively defined if you want it to impact the draft lottery. So you’d need more than “it’s obvious” as the rule.
Fiasco? Your Reds stole a spot last year ……justice was served for the Cards this year.
With all due respect, no offense intended 🙂
Understood and if you were around last year, I had said even though it helped them this time (even though they got hosed year one too), it was still a fiasco.
Reds: How do you define large markets and where do you draw the line?
Market size should have nothing to do with it. You’re just carrying water for rich owners who are cheapskates. If you wanted to do some such exclusion thing *at all* (and I’m not saying it you should or shouldn’t), the only teams who should be excluded from the lottery should be ones who fail to spend x% of their total revenue on player payroll.
No one should be excluded this market thing only comes into play when a big market wins. Didn’t hear anyone complaining when KC won it twice “down with those mid market teams who do they think they are!!”
Until ALL TV revenues are shared, there is no way that can happen. I agree there should be a floor, and a cap as well once that occurs. Works well for the NFL.
A baseball history lesson.
The draft was developed in the beginning to EVENLY DISTRIBUTE TALENT because certain teams at the time were buying all the top players.
History is repeating itself. There is no international draft so buying players is happening again. Now they are taking away drafting in inverse order of record in the US draft. That all defeats the original purpose of a draft.
But large markets and their fans just want theirs and the hell with the good of the sport. Their bought and paid for toady just sits in NYC and fiddles while Rome burns.
Kind of reflects American society in 2024 as a whole, doesn’t it? Get mine and the hell with everyone else.
Buddy the thing about percentages of revenue is that the raw dollar amount per team would vary by team. Smaller Market teams wouldn’t have to spend as much as larger market teams in what I’m talking about. Sharing TV revenue wouldn’t have to happen (even if it should) to force cheapskate owners to spend more on payroll. You’re pretending to be about equality here while literally spewing cheapskate owner propaganda for why they won’t spend.
How many rings does KC have since the Yankees or Mets last one? How many do the Giants and Marlins have? This big market thing is so overblown
And please never use the NFL as a mark of parody when 40% of the last 20 superbowls were won by Brady or Mahomes.
The original purpose of the draft was good. Unfortunately, that has been subverted by teams losing on purpose. The original intent was good for the sport and the fans. But losing on purpose is good for neither.
If you have spent any time at all here, and I can tell you don’t by your response, no one calls out my team’s owner more than I do because I have seen them spend 30-40 million more than the last two years payroll in the past.
But you can’t use 3 teams lack of spending to talk about the problems affecting 20.
Small and mid markets actually have to spend MORE in things like promotion, advertising, player development and Latin American scouting, among other things, including paying those people and cultivating contacts. There are more expenses for a baseball team besides player salaries. A lot more. They can’t just go buy players any time they please, and if they are stuck with a bad contract it cripples them for years rather than just buying a different guy.
You are right about the TV money. You will have to pry the lucrative RSNs from the northeast teams’ cold dead hands. Don’t even get me started on MASN.
Prove a team is losing on purpose.
Incompetence, sure. Not paying crazy payroll prices the large markets drove out of sight, sure.
Losing on purpose? Bad for business. No one would show up, and you need paying customers.
Besides, tanking in baseball would get you a guy that MIGHT make it in a few years.
Are you suggesting that tanking didn’t take place? It might be hard to prove, but the consensus throughout MLB is that multiple teams have tanked over the last couple decades. I doubt MLB would have instituted the lottery if they didn’t have knowledge that teams were tanking. The lottery system is in place for only one reason; to discourage tanking.
Wait. Doesn’t EVERY TEAM contribute 48% of ALL revenue to the sharing pool, which then is distributed in 3.3% chunks back to every team? So, MLB should pool everything to fund ownership like Nutting and the A’s to pocket in the interest of “fairness”?
No thanks.
@jean, I disagree. Why would anyone care if a team uses a tanking strategy to get better draft choices and create a competitive window? Not all teams have the monetary resources to be competitive every year. Not all teams have the monetary resources to keep the top talent they have developed and buy multiple free agents. Teams operate under different constraints and should be free to develop strategies around their constraints. Looking at the actions of Manfred and MLB over the last several years, I think they are more concerned about discouraging a small market WS. I suspect they favor a LA v NY WS over a “battle of Ohio” WS., the former would bring in more money. The current system favors teams with large revenue sources and disadvantages those that lack large revenue sources.
Teams losing losing on purpose is bad for the sport, and really unfair to fans. The Guards and the Rays are able to be competitive despite not spending big.
I don’t buy the conspiracy theory. It’s also would be bad for the sport to always have LA vs NY every year. Fans of other cities would lose interest quickly. MLB can’t sustain itself limited to the NY and LA markets. That would make baseball a small, niche sport, with greatly reduced revenue.
What I can see crashing the sport is the development of a Super Team-Harlem Globetrotters type team that has a perennial All-Star at every position and every rotation slot. The Dodgers are getting there. If they land Roki Sasaki as well, possibly Teo. I mean I would think after a certain point players will not want to sign with them out of the respect for fair competition. How fun would it be to play for a team that goes 130-32 every year? I know we’re not at that point yet, but just for a thought exercise….I don’t think that would be good for the game.
Good for the game and how much fun are probably the most opposite statements you can tie together.
Good for the game no
130 wins fun? Of course that’s fun lol
Mariners win 85 and draft 3rd
Love this lottery stuff lol
The Mariners never tanked. I like this aspect of the draft changes. It gives teams that never tank the ability to get a higher draft pick every once in a while
Never tank? You obviously were not around for the first 20 years of the Mariners existence.
That wasn’t tanking that was incompetence lol
Fair point. lol
Early Mariners weren’t tanking… they just sucked!!!
In all fairness, Seattle could win the draft lottery every year and still not make the post-Season.
Hey, that’s not very nice. We made it there in 2022 and played an 18-inning game against the Astros that was deadlocked 0-0 until Pena finally hit one out (typical Mariners batting prowess on display lol.)
League Hates the Giants
Wacko conspiracy theory.
yeah I mean pretty much from my understanding of it the giants will almost never pick in the top 10 no matter what
Curse of Farhan.
huh? this has nothing to do with farhan it has to do with the structure of the draft lottery. it has been constructed to keep the larger market teams out of the top 10 draft order
Being a Cubs fan and watching the two teams they were sandwiched between jump into the top 6. Oof.
I’m just glad the Cardinals didn’t wind up at #1.
It’s not fair the Dodgers have to draft last.
I know…this lottery is ruining baseball.
The Dodgers actually won the #1 pick but deferred it to 2028.
Ha! Beat y’all deferral crazy’s to it!!
There will be teams drafting 3 times before they go.
Wow
Birds picking 5th. Highest I can remember!!!
Highest since JD Drew is believe. Woohoo!
Seems silly. So much player development is needed anyways, why punish the worst teams? No way the White Sox should be picking 10th after such a horrendous year.
PapiShango: That’s alright. getz wouldn’t know what to do with the number one pick if he had it.
If MLB allowed draft picks to be traded, White Sox might have the intelligence to get a better player.
Papi, “why punish the worst teams?”
To disincentivize tanking.
Stop Giving thinks the lottery is fixed. Since he muted me, can someone suggest he take off his tin foil hat?
You saw the Angels are picking 2nd right? That pop you just heard was the hole being blasted in your theory
It’s tough because the White Sox are being punished like the As were the last few years, because the Astros and Orioles paved a pathway to an elite team by simply putting forth the most putrid product for 3 straight years and got/get all sorts of glory from it.
“Punished?”
MLB identified a problem because the Astros, Orioles, and Cubs (don’t forget them) all benefitted from intentionally being bad. The league made a change to tell teams that losing on purpose is no longer going to be rewarded. I applaud the change.
I agree with the change being good. And punished probably isn’t the right word. But it’s like having cars speed by you on the highway but you’re the one to get pulled over. It sucks for Miami, Oakland, and Chicago, but much better for the game moving forward.
Their strategy worked. Why was it bad? Should we favor mediocrity year after year?
Wow. Trump and Elon rigged this
Cardinals picking 5th heck yeah!
I hate this draft lottery crap
Why?
A gift to the large markets. Couldn’t be more obvious.
A draft lottery is so unnecessary in MLB
Why?
The better teams should not be in the lottery. Should just be the worse 10-12 or so teams and then the rest in order of record. This should be to discourage tanking not give teams the opportunity to gain an advantage over a division competitor simply out of luck. It feels unfair because it is. Better ways to prevent tanking.
The better teams are not in the lottery.
Multiple teams with winning records were in the lottery. One of them will pick 3rd.
Hockey draft lottery is the way to go. Disincentivizes tanking (somewhat) while also not punishing bad teams.
Chrstmas gift for the Angels! However, no front office talent to take advantage. Sell the team, Arte!
They had the 4th worst record. Just a small gift. Like one a game for your Game Boy instead of a PlayStation 5 Pro 4TB SSD Digital Console.
Angels picking second should mean getting the best college player available.
Please don’t screw this up.
Those hopeless angels get Jace laviolette a centerfielder. Winning. Plus it’s another sec player. Quick development.
I’d take it.
Bremner from UCSB not to far behind.
@HalosHeavenJJ You’d take Bremner over Jamie Arnold? I don’t think you could go wrong either way
I honestly don’t know enough about Arnold.
My sister and a couple good friends went to UCSB and I live in Big West territory so I’m familiar with Bremner and think he’d look great in red.
We’ll screw this up, don’t worry. We wasted 5 first round picks the year after we drafted Trout.
Yep, and the guy who drafted Trout, Skaggs, Grichuk, Garrett Richards, and Patrick Corbin in that draft was fired by an intern Arte promoted to GM for having bad drafts.
Can’t see why this franchise sucks.
@halos. Not sure who bane drafted for the red Sox, but wouldn’t surprise me if he got betts. It was around that time. Plus perry seems to be hitting on the drafts and trades.
Made me look.
Benentindi, Michael Kopech, Triston Casas, Jarren Duran, the Lugo and Zeferjahn we picked up at the trade deadline.
Plenty of role players, but no Betts.
I doubt they screw this up. The Angels need a left handed power bat, both LaViolette and Holliday check that box. The Nats are likely to select Holliday and the Angels should get Laviolette. Can’t go wrong with one of the two.
I like Neyens but they should take the pitcher out of Florida State.
They shouldn’t pass on Arnold if he is there.
The Gnats will get Holliday, he fits their profile of drafting prep players.
The Angels will pick a College kid that can contribute in ’26 and there’s 3 almost can’t miss players to choose from
Sounds like me last year.
You guys have Ron Washington, the man is going to help with player development, there is hope for the young Angels coming up.
You mean like how they screwed up having the best players from the 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s all on the same team for a couple years and STILL didn’t even make the playoffs?
I am a Nats fan, and I think the lottery is stupid.
I agree on the lottery, but I disagree with capping where a team can pick. Just because you draft a top prospect, doesn’t mean they’re going to pan out. The Rockies always pick high and develop practically no one for an example
Why were you banned?
draft system is broken
whitesox lost 121 games
and they pick 10th?
manfred says tms cant have top spots routinely bec then they’ll tank
but thats 4 yrs in a row nationals get top 10 pick. and they had #2 in 2023, now #1.
manfreds thinking is tms need to spend $ otherwise they get docked draft choices. but then mets spend big and they get docked too! what the hell manfred!
2022.
It wasn’t just Manfred, this was collectively bargained with the players in the CBA.
It needs to be collectively bargained out in the next CBA(in my opinion).
Tony Clark is a fool.
it was known for a year, that the Sox could do no better than 10th. It happened to the Nats last year, too.
it’s in the CBA….players and owners went for this system.
It bit the Cards some last year, 5th worst record, picked 7th….they were a winner this year, 15th record, 5th pick…..win some, lose some
@johncoltrane. A’s and whitesox were penalized from meeting cba rules.
Damn…someone took a big ole dump on the ChiSox. Most losses in a single 162 game season and as a prize, pick 10th.
@kzw. Whitesox and a’s were penalized for not spending. That’s the best picks they could get
I did not know this. Thank you for the info.
Going back and actually reading the full article would’ve helped me as well.
The White Sox were not penalized for not spending. They were penalized for being so bad for so long. The A’s were penalized for being a revenue sharing recipient and continuing to be so bad for so long.
I believe the White Sox are not able to pick in top 10 because they are a large market team and they received a lottery pick last year..
@pads fans. They are considered a large market team, and did not qualify spending wise.
@googleme. He’s obviously the guy that will say what a overpay on a minor league deal.
If Quentin Young falls to 10 and the White Sox draft him they will have avoided the busts at the top and plucked the best player in the draft. Unimpressed with LaViolette and Holiday.
What a lucky franchise. When they stunk in the past, they had two obvious number one picks to take with Harper and Strasburg. And now that they are bad again, they win the lottery, and get the number one pick despite not being the worst team.
Nats got screwed out of Skenes by the lottery and went from 5th pick to 10th last year because of the new draft rules
MLB – we want more parity. Its good for the sport
Mariners and STL picking ahead of the Marlins, A’s, White Sox and Rockies.
Seems legit
Come on, the white sox and A’s are bad because of terrible owners. There is no market that cant bear a 150m payroll.
It is. Reward teams that spend and try. Punish teams that don’t. A’s and White Sox sabotaged their own chances. Marlins and Rockies are so poorly ran that this should be a wake-up call for a change in personnel or ownership.
The draft is doing what it’s supposed to do.
Super happy where the Halos pick. Then I saw where the Mariners are.
haha, I had exactly the opposite feeling for my Ms. good luck anyway red
Knowing they were locked into 10 or 11, did the White Sox still tank or were they just bad?
…a little bit of this, a little bit of that…
People need to read the rules of the lottery draft.. complaining about the White Sox and A’s not getting better than top 10 spot tells me everything I need to know about your lack of knowledge (I’m assuming people post this whining before the full story was posted, or they just can’t comprehend)
If any team in the lottery got screwed it was the Reds.
Dodgers were robbed!
robbed or deferred?
Lol. Rumor has it that the Red Sox were interested in winning the lottery!
I love it. The cubs and Cardinals tied and the Birds pick 5th while the cubs get 17. lol
Are you listening to Willie Nelson’s “Always On My Mind”?
This new systems really sucks. How can a team that had a winning record pick third? It totally makes a joke of the system.
I like a lottery, but no team with a winning record should be eligible.
Fair argument, Pads Fans. Could be a tweak in the next CBA.
“How can a team that had a winning record pick third?”
Because they beat longer odds. It’s random. A lottery is no good without the randomness.
@jean matric. Should be based on records if you get dinged on for not spending you should pick from the bottom.
Obviously the worst team picking first didn’t work. Deciding who isn’t spending enough would be extremely complicated. Cleveland doesn’t spend, but don’t tank either. Are you suggesting teams like the Guardians, or Rays, should be punished after a down year when they’re usually able to field a competitive team without spending?
Worst teams picking first worked quite well. It created Royals 2015 WS winning team, the Cubs WS winning team, the Nationals 2019 WS winning team. and the Astros team that has been consistently a winner since 2017.
Without consistently picking near the top when they when they were really bad, those teams do not have the players to win the WS. Tanking worked.
This system does not work because it rewards winning teams just for being lucky.
@jean matrac. They already do just saying it should be the bottom of the draft. It worked this year because the a’s got severino to comply.
We’ll just have to disagree. Any system that encourages losing on purpose is not working IMO.
A draft lottery is no good when winning teams are IN the lottery. That’s the point.
It’s the bottom 15 teams. Sometimes that team will have a losing record and sometimes a winning one. If the number is changed to include only losing teams the odds are different year to year. I think MLB wants consistency of same number of teams, same odds every year. Sometimes a wining team will beat the long odds, but most of the time they won’t.
I would rather the Rockies have not “won” the #4 pick. Now they are going to be out of the running for a lottery pick next year. No little Holliday, a virtually guaranteed bad year, and a guaranteed pick outside the top 10 in next year’s lottery. Not a good day.
They should have a lottery for non playoff teams and one for playoff teams and the one who wins the playoff lottery picks next after the last non playoff team.
Pirates at six… nice
THIS IS A STUPID SYSTEM.
Any system that doesn’t give the first pick to history’s worst team, is stupid!
Well, they did that in the past, and the result was teams losing on purpose to get high draft picks. This doesn’t seem any worse than that to me.
Of all in the past, it might’ve been two or three teams tanking. This doesn’t eliminate tanking it just widens the pool..
And there were other ways to deal with the problem. This solves, nothing, creates a lot of additional problems, and is needlessly complicated, while adding a ridiculous element of chance.
Why penalize the Chicago White Sox for being bad two years in a row? Think they did it on purpose? That’s stupid. It is impossible for a normal person to defend this practice.
You didn’t specify what time span those 2 or 3 teams were tanking. But even that is too many.
And it absolutely does eliminate tanking. Before, finish last you choose first. Now the risk is too great. Finish last and maybe choose 1oth. With no guarantee of a top pick, the incentive is gone.
The current draft system like the expanded playoff system encourages mediocrity. Why strive to be great when you only need to be good enough? The benefit of being average is that you may make the playoffs or, if you don’t, you just might get the first draft choice.
Some teams get screwed, but it’s random, and things tend to even out over time. The Nat’s could get screwed in the future. But the lottery is exactly why tanking is not a good strategy anymore, and that’s point of it.
Nats already got screwed the last two years.. lottery cost them skenes
They actually already “kind of” got screwed. They actually won the lottery last year, too, but were only able to pick at ten, as per the rules.
Funny how some are upset that the lottery includes big market teams, while others are outraged that the big market W Sox won’t pick until 10th.
Sucks the Rays are… Probably where they should be, but never lucky enough to get in the top 10.
Having said that, I’m totally fine with this. Screw the A’s and White Sox. If they’re deliberately tanking or just plain bad, it’s the same. Don’t get rewarded for purposely being bad, or not spending on players, or having incompetent people running the organization. This system incentivizes not being bad in general. Incompetent staff can keep their jobs because they have high draft picks and point to the future. This should be a wake-up call to the Marlins and White Sox and Rockies to clean house or sell.
Legendary, record-setting levels of suck and the White Sox only get the 10th overall pick ROTFL
Mariners must be thrilled to get 3rd pick
LaViolette looks a little light in the pants for 6’6 230 – skinny… and speaking of skinny Ethan Holiday has skinny forearms, he has a small frame.
Have to research more to find the pick but it’s looking like a pitcher out of Florida State.
@bwmiller79. How big is his cup size, Because that determines power, and the ladies love homers.
Didn’t look, they both are tall and skinny though.
Is this considered a deep class? I’m hoping this draft and the eventual trades of Rengifo and Ward can boost the Angels minor league system to the point they actually have major league quality options in their system unlike the last too many years to remember when they did.
Laviolette would likely be the angels pick if the draft happened tonight. He’ll be quick to MLB and massive talent in a similar way to Wyatt Langford (so not without growing pains). Ward won’t return much. The best situation would be a full rebuild but that isn’t the angels style. It’s tough because their minor leagues look worse than their MLB roster.
If Arnold falls to the Angels they should take him. LaViolette doesn’t look that special to me.
A couple of players to keep an eye on in the spring for Padres fans.
Caden Bodine, a catcher from Coastal Carolina. He can hit. if he continues to hit in his Junior year and can get a little better at receiving, he could jump into the 1st round.
The other is Carson Brumbaugh a SS/RHP from OK. His spring ball will determine if he is 1st round or back or 2nd round or lower.
I watched some film on Quentin Young, he is legit, has a hose for an arm, slick fielder in right and at 3rd. Solid approach at the plate.
I like Jaime Arnold too, the pitcher out of Florida State his high ranking looks to be justified, he throws effortlessly in that arm slot. The comparisons to Chris Sale are reasonable. Great movement on his breaking stuff, good life to his fastball, and that arm slot makes the ball difficult to pickup, he looks like a potential 1 or 2 to me.
Cam Cannarella has great bat to ball skills, they show when you watch the film, he is a better contact hitter than Holiday and LaViolette, doesn’t have the power but he could go Altuve one day and be good for 25HR a year, good speed too.
I like Xavier Neyens, reminds a little of Bryce Harper when he was a prep, has an aggressive approach at the plate.
Kruz Schoolcraft is interesting as a pitcher, 6’7 lefty, has fairly good mechanics, doesn’t have electric stuff but throws the ball well.
EH! Baseball drafts are not like NBA where getting #1 or #2 will swing your team into playoffs instantly. You may not see them for a few seasons if it all. Top 5 are rarely a lock in MLB.
Shotgun goes to Ryan. Congratulations Ryan!
Arnold is my 1.1
Cardinals will just draft some garbage pitcher that they can’t develop because they can’t develop players. Cardinals need to stop their ridiculous rule where the team’s melanin content can’t be above a certain level in order to appease their fan base. It really shoots them in the foot and makes them looks backwards in the modern world. Cardinals fans are already demanding Tink Hence be traded because he doesn’t fit “the cardinals way”, ridiculous.
Is that what happened to Jordan Walker? Mishandled because of melanin content??
I’m just here for the whining by people whose teams didn’t get the first pick.
This new draft is so stupid
To all team fans. This is one of the deepest drafts in recent memory. Where you pick probably won’t matter. Just pick well, and you’ll likely have an impact player of some sort.
That being said, I’m THRILLED that the Cards won the lottery…or placed in the lottery (top 6). From 15th to 5th is a golden ticket. Grats to the Mariners’ fans as well.
Give me Jaime Arnold if Jace LaViolette isn’t available (likely #1, imo)
Exciting draft if you follow such things.
Who should the Mariners pick?
Poor White Sox fans
Lmao
Hopefully we get Quentin Young.
Where are you guys getting your info? MLB has the order completely different. Orioles pick 19th.
Mets Yankees and Dodgers don’t pick in the first 30 either.
“Three teams – the Mets, Yankees and Dodgers – were not eligible for the Lottery this year but won’t pick in the reverse order of standings, as is the rule for the non-Lottery-eligible teams. Because they exceeded the second surcharge threshold of the Competitive Balance Tax, they will have their first picks dropped 10 spots, with their first selections slated to come at picks 38-40.”
After round one, it may be purely by record though. I would have to double check.
mlb.com/glossary/transactions/rule-4-draft
Postseason teams pick after non-postseason teams in the order of their postseason finish (for example, clubs losing in the Wild Card Round pick before clubs losing the Division Series); within each group, teams are sorted by revenue sharing status, then by reverse order of winning percentage.
For this reason are the Brewers at 20 instead of 22? Got this from Brew Crew Ball comment
Mariners are a dangerous team. 5-1 against San Diego. Swept the Mets. Winning record against Houston and Texas. I look forward to seeing what they can do in 2025. Which is why if Roki Sasaki and Pete Alonso are smart, they’ll want to come to Seattle.
Sadly not. To the big markets, as usual.