White Sox Secure No. 1 Pick in 2026 MLB Draft Lottery

The Chicago White Sox secured the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 MLB Draft Lottery on Tuesday evening during the Winter Meetings in Orlando, Florida, giving the struggling franchise a prime opportunity to select a top prospect. The Tampa Bay Rays earned the second pick, followed by the Minnesota Twins in third, as determined by the league's random draw among eligible non-playoff teams.

The lottery, broadcast live on MLB Network and streamed on MLB.com at 5:30 p.m. ET, involved 15 eligible teams vying for the top six selections. The White Sox entered with the highest odds at 27.73 percent, reflecting their 60-102 record in the 2025 season, the second-worst in baseball. The Twins held the next-best chances at 22.18 percent, while the Pittsburgh Pirates had 16.81 percent. At the low end, the Houston Astros faced just 0.34 percent odds.

Under MLB's system, implemented in 2023 as part of the collective bargaining agreement to discourage tanking, odds are assigned inversely to regular-season winning percentages for non-playoff teams. A machine draws four ping-pong balls, each numbered from 1 to 14, creating a four-digit combination that corresponds to a team's assigned "virtual...