White Sox Win 2026 MLB Draft Lottery, Rays & Twins Get Top-3 Picks

While there is no guarantee signings happen during the Winter Meetings (spoiler: there have been), one guarantee is that next year’s MLB Draft order is sorted out. Major League Baseball conducted its annual lottery on December 9 to determine the top six picks, and by proxy, the rest of the first round.

The lottery results

Here are the results for the 2026 Draft lottery:

1. White Sox
2. Rays
3. Twins
4. Giants
5. Pirates
6. Royals
7. Orioles
8. Athletics
9. Braves
10. Rockies
11. Nationals
12. Angels
13. Cardinals
14. Marlins
15. Diamondbacks
16. Rangers
17. Astros
18. Reds

Chicago (AL) had the best odds coming in at 27.7%, followed by the Twins (22.2%) and Pirates (16.8%). The White Sox stuck in the first spot, while the Rays and Twins rounded out the top three.

Also winners were the Giants, Pirates, and Royals, which locked in a top in the top six.

The Mets also had a lot riding on this lottery. Since the Mets incurred penalties via the luxury tax threshold, New York (NL) was subject to seeing their first-round pick all 10 spots unless the team won a top-six pick. However, the Mets didn’t win one. Thus, the Mets moved down to #27, while the Reds slid up to #18.

Due to CBA rules, the Rockies, Nationals, and Angels were ineligible for the top pick in the MLB Draft. All three of those teams won top-six picks last year. The Rockies, who were the worst team last year, won top six picks in 2024 and 2025.

How 2026 looks so far

Generally speaking, these things tend to change as the spring plays out. A great example of that was last year, as Ethan Holliday — the presumptive favorite to go #1 in 2025 — slid out of the top three. Eli Willits, a fellow Oklahoma high school prepster, jumped up.

Right now, the presumptive favorites to go first are Roch Cholowsky and Grady Emerson. Emerson, who was on Team USA’s U-18 team this past year, has been a regular on the national circuit and is arguably the best high schooler in this draft. Cholowsky, meanwhile, is a near-complete shortstop and dominated last season with UCLA.

Other potential early favorites — but on the outside looking in — include Jacob Lombard, the brother of George Lombard Jr., Coastal Carolina pitcher Cameron Flukey, and Georgia Tech outfielder Drew Burress.