After months of waiting and (probably mostly for show) hemming and hawing over their potential selection atop the 2026 MLB Draft. the Chicago White Sox went back to old reliable and selected UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky. That pick was the one everyone was prepared for. Everyone, it seems, except the man who was ordained to announce it.
When MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred stepped to the podium to announce the White Sox's pick and get the ball rolling (35-40 minutes late, 25 minutes after the pick was leaked online), he cleared his throat and revealed the information the captive audience had long been waiting for, amid the din of bellowing music and echoing noise in the cavernous hall. It did not go according to plan.
The 2026 MLB Draft started with the White Sox calling Cholowsky's name, and Manfred getting it wrong.
Dude said Chalooski
— Céspedes Family BBQ (@CespedesBBQ) July 11, 2026
Yup. Internally, I've debated a few times over whether it was "Cho-LOW-sky" or "Cho-LAU-sky". At no point did I consider "Loosk". Manfred apparently considered "Loosk" and then also said "Loosk".
And the worst part of this fumble, of course ... is that MLB has attempted to turn the draft into more of a centerpiece event over the years. They've moved it to primetime Sunday. They've shifted the Futures Game to give it the spotlight. They've sold it to three different networks on this particular Saturday, bouncing it from Peacock to MLB Network to the world wide web.
Was it worth it? Because, um, the people who are paid to cover the draft aren't exactly buying Manfred's gambit.
I dunno man, don't tell me you care about the draft if the freaking commissioner can't even pronounce the FIRST PICK'S NAME RIGHT
— Jake Mintz (@Jake_Mintz) July 11, 2026
Never mind the fact that MLB scheduled a FULL SLATE OF GAMES over Saturday's draft, either. That left the beat writers otherwise occupied, and only the true sickos traveled to Philadelphia to be in the room where it happened.
And then, in that room, the Commissioner of Baseball said Roch Cholooski.
Ideally, when Cholowsky's rise is complete and he makes his first All-Star Game and receives down-ballot MVP votes, this issue will be behind us. But the damage will have already been done, because it's the draft itself that takes the shrapnel, not Cholowsky himself (though he can't be thrilled that he can never watch that moment back without cringing).
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