Sports litteries are often not kind to the worst teams, but the Chicago White Sox have finally broken through with a win and earned the first pick. The worst team rarely gets the top pick when there’s a draft lottery, and while the White Sox weren’t the worst of the worst in 2025, it’s hard to disagree that they deserve this.
Chicago White Sox earn much-needed win in MLB draft lottery
The Chicago White Sox haven’t picked first overall in the MLB draft since 1977, when they picked Harold Baines. The White Sox set a modern record for losses in 2024, and they were only slightly better in 2025. Excluding the COVID-19 2020 season, the last time the White Sox won 90 games, which is not exactly an elite total, was 2021. Before that, it was 2006.
Simply put, this has been one of baseball’s worst teams in the modern era. It’s a genuine shame they didn’t get the first overall pick after literally losing more games than anyone has ever lost in the modern era, but the lottery gifted them with the first pick this time.
Here are the full results:
- White Sox (1, 27.7%)
- Rays (7, 3.03%)
- Twins (2, 22.2%)
- Giants (12, 1.0%)
- Pirates (3, 16.8%)
- Royals (13, 0.8%)
- Orioles (4, 9.24%)
- A’s (5, 6.6%)
- Braves (6, 4.5%)
- Rockies (ineligible for lottery pick)
- Nationals (ineligible for lottery pick)
- Angels (ineligible for lottery pick)
- Cardinals (8, 2.3%)
- Marlins (9, 1.8%)
- D-backs (10, 1.5%)
- Rangers (11, 1.3%)
- Astros (15, 0.3%)
The rest of the first round is as follows:
- Reds
- Guardians
- Red Sox
- Padres
- Tigers
- Cubs
- Mariners
- Brewers
- Braves (Prospect Promotion Incentive pick for Drake Baldwin winning NL Rookie of the Year)
- Mets (Round 1 pick + 10-pick penalty)
- Astros (Prospect Promotion Incentive pick for Hunter Brown placing in the top three in Cy Young voting)
- Guardians (Competitive Balance A)
- Royals (Competitive Balance A)
- D-backs (Competitive Balance A)
- Cardinals (Competitive Balance A)
- Orioles (Competitive Balance A)
- Pirates (Competitive Balance A)
- Yankees (Round 1 pick + 10-pick penalty)
- Phillies (Round 1 pick + 10-pick penalty)
- Rockies (Competitive Balance A)
- Rockies (Round 2)
- Blue Jays (Round 1 pick + 10-pick penalty)
- Dodgers (Round 1 pick + 10-pick penalty)
“It’s a significant, significant event for us, and it can’t be overstated how important it is,” White Sox general manager Chris Getz said via ESPN. “We’ve been hard at work at bringing talent into the organization in different ways. Obviously, the amateur draft is an avenue, and now to be able to get a chance at the top talent in the draft is really exciting.”
UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky is among the favorites to be picked first. “There’s a couple guys that are standouts right now,” Getz said about potential selections. “You’ve still got to do the work. You stay at it, and you’re open-minded. But now that we’ve received the No. 1 pick, I’m fairly confident tonight I’ll be diving in a little bit more.”
The GM knows he has work to do, but for now, the White Sox can enjoy a much-needed win. “We’re busy — good busy,” he said. “But tonight, it’s really about getting the group together and celebrating the No. 1 pick.”
Chicago entered the lottery with the best odds for landing the pick, so it’s not all that surprising. With a 27.7% chance for the first pick, anything could have happened. Lotteries tend to be unforgiving to bad teams, so it wouldn’t have been a shock to see the Rays, a former playoff team who just had a down year in 2025, earn that pick instead of the more deserving White Sox. Baseball does give the worst team the best odds, even if only slightly better than other teams, so the White Sox had better luck than if they were in the NBA.
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