Despite a 41-141 record in 2024 and setting the Major League Baseball record for losses in a single season, the Chicago White Sox will not be selecting first overall in the 2025 MLB Draft.
While the first overall pick is never guaranteed now that the draft lottery has been introduced to baseball, the Sox find themselves in a devastating situation, saddled with the 10th overall selection.
Due to a new rule in the 2022-26 Collective Bargaining Agreement, “large market teams,” which are teams that do not receive revenue-sharing payouts, cannot have a lottery pick two years in a row. Any club that is not eligible for the lottery can select 10th overall at best, which is where Chicago finds themselves for the 2025 draft after being involved in the 2023 lottery.
It’s a rule designed to deter teams from tanking. But sometimes, when you’re in the heart of a grueling rebuild, it can be devastating.
The White Sox are building a farm system worth getting excited about. If they also had the luxury of the number one overall pick, the future would be looking even brighter. The good news is that the CBA rules that were recently a curse could soon become a saving grace for the Southsiders.
Rockies ineligble for No.1 pick
While small market teams (receiving revenue share payouts) are shown more grace by the anti-tanking rules, they too are subject to them from time-to-time. No club is able to receive a lottery selection for more than two years in a row.
That means the Colorado Rockies, who are currently on pace to finish an astonishing 28-134, will be picking outside of the Top 10 in the 2026 MLB Draft no matter what. Colorado has the fourth overall pick in the 2025 draft after picking third overall in 2024. That’s two straight years of lottery selections, which forces a reset no matter what their 2025 record ends up being.
The White Sox are still the second-worst team in baseball at the moment. But a 5-5 record over their last 10 games suggests improvement is coming. I don’t expect the Sox to finish as the worst team in the league.
But thanks to the Rockies and the CBA rules, the Sox could easily end up with the best odds of getting No.1 overall. The Rockies and Marlins both saw their odds increase from this exact same scenario with the White Sox last year.