DALLAS — The Washington Nationals will have the No. 1 pick in the amateur draft next summer after winning the lottery in a drawing of ping-pong balls at the MLB winter meetings Tuesday.
The White Sox will have the No. 10 pick, and the Cubs will pick at No. 17.
The 121-loss Sox, who had the most losses of any major-league club since 1900, were not eligible for the draft lottery because they had one of the top six picks last year (No. 5) and are a team that pays into the revenue-sharing plan.
The Sox have twice had the No. 10 pick, selecting Robin Ventura in 1988 and Zack Collins in 2016. It will be the club’s 22nd top-10 draft pick.
The Cubs have had the No. 17 pick twice, selecting Tony Woods in 1982 and Todd Noel in 1996. Neither player reached the major leagues.
Unlike last year, when the Nationals were ineligible after initially coming out with the top spot, they will get to make the first pick in July in Atlanta, the site of the All-Star Game.
Washington was ineligible for a top-six pick last year because the collective bargaining agreement states a team that pays into the revenue-sharing plan cannot have a lottery selection in back-to-back years. The Nationals chose outfielder Dylan Crews with the No. 2 pick in 2023.
The Los Angeles Angels have the second pick for 2025. The Seattle Mariners, Colorado Rockies, St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates round out the top six.
A weighted lottery among the 18 teams that failed to make the playoffs this season determined the order of picks for the third year in a row.
The Nationals went in with a 10.2% chance, the fourth-best odds, for getting the No. 1 pick. The Rockies and Miami Marlins, both 100-loss teams, had the best odds at 22.45%, ahead of the Angels at 17.96%. The Marlins ended up with the seventh pick.
The Mariners got the No. 3 pick after having a 0.53% chance to get the No. 1 pick, the second-worst odds among 16 eligible teams.
The CBA also doesn’t allow teams that receive money in revenue sharing to have lottery picks three years in a row. That made the Athletics (69-93) ineligible for the lottery — they picked fourth last year after having the No. 6 selection in 2023.
The White Sox got the 10th pick, one spot ahead of the A’s — the highest possible positions for those two teams because of their recent lottery picks.
MLB draft order
The first round of the 2025 MLB draft will unfold as follows, per MLB.com, with numbers in parentheses denoting where the teams ranked in the lottery odds and their odds of winning the top pick:
- 1. Nationals (4, 10.20%)
- 2. Angels (3, 17.96%)
- 3. Mariners (15, 0.53%)
- 4. Rockies (T-1, 22.45%)
- 5. Cardinals (13, 0.82%)
- 6. Pirates (6, 5.31%)
- 7. Marlins (T-1, 22.45%)
- 8. Blue Jays (5, 7.48%)
- 9. Reds (7, 3.67%)
- 10. White Sox (ineligible for top pick)
- 11. Athletics (ineligible for top pick)
- 12. Rangers (8, 2.45%)
- 13. Giants (9, 1.90%)
- 14. Rays (10, 1.50%)
- 15. Red Sox (11, 1.22%)
- 16. Twins (12, 1.09%)
- 17. Cubs (14, 0.68%)
- 18. Diamondbacks (16, 0.27%)
Not eligible for the lottery due to making the playoffs:
- 19. Orioles
- 20. Brewers
- 21. Astros
- 22. Braves
- 23. Royals
- 24. Tigers
- 25. Padres
- 26. Phillies
- 27. Guardians
Not eligible for a first-round pick due to exceeding the luxury tax:
- 38. Mets
- 39. Yankees
- 40. Dodgers
