Despite a historic losing season in 2024, the Chicago White Sox will not be picking first in this year's MLB Draft. They will not even be selecting in the first nine picks of the draft. Due to rules in the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the White Sox were ineligible for the MLB Draft Lottery and are now picking 10th overall.
It's frustrating, but the White Sox still have an opportunity to draft a potential cornerstone player with the No. 10 pick.
Even though this year's draft is not considered to be as stacked as the 2026 class, there are still some intriguing prospects. An MLB Draft differs from the NBA or the NFL because the future superstars and generational talent can be found at almost any point in the first round. Mike Trout was the 25th overall pick in the 2009 draft. That's the unpredictable nature of baseball.
Baltimore took shortstop Gunnar Henderson in the second round of the 2019 draft.
Teams want to be picking high in the draft to have their pick of the litter, as well as additional bonus slot money to play with. In the NFL or NBA, a top five pick usually represents the only chance to land a face of the franchise talent.
It is not the end of the world that the White Sox are picking 10th overall. Although it would be nice to be in the top five for next year's draft as there are a couple of studs that can potentially be a franchise cornerstone player.
The White Sox front office just need to get the pick No. 10 right if they want the new rebuild to continue moving in the right direction.
The White Sox can't miss in the 2025 draft
It would be nice to see the White Sox take a position player since the farm system is fairly weak in that area.
Right now, the White Sox have Braden Montgomery, Kyle Teel, and possibly Caleb Bonemer, who just cracked Baseball America's top 100 prospect list, who fit that mold. Otherwise, there are a lot of question marks.
However, Bonemer is the only prospect of that crew that the White Sox drafted. Montgomery and Teel both came over in the Garrett Crochet trade. Clearly, the White Sox need to draft another position player with potential and develop them after selecting them 10th overall.
They passed on two bats in last year's draft by not taking Jac Caglianone and Konnor Griffin--two players the team was tied to heavily before selecting left-handed pitcher Hagen Smith. Taking Smith was a great pick since he is already considered the second-best left-handed pitching prospect behind teammate Noah Schultz.
Still, watching Caglianone hit home runs for the Kansas City Royals' farm system and potentially be a problem for the Sox for years to come is tough to swallow. The hope is that with the 10th pick this year, the Sox take a position player.
Keith Law's first mock has Sox drafting prep shortstop JoJo Parker
The Athletic's Keith Law has the White Sox taking high school shortstop JoJo Parker over Texas A&M slugger Jace LaViolette. That would be an interesting decision considering the downward trend of White Sox prospect Colson Montgomery.
Bonemer could replace Montgomery as the shortstop of the future, but it can never hurt to have more options up the middle.
However, Parker might not be long to play shortstop. He is another player that evaluators believe will need to make the transition to a corner spot like third base at some point. The same things are often said about Colson Montgomery.
While LaViolette has seen his stock tumble a bit with an underachieving season for the Aggies, he still has plenty of pop in his bat and the White Sox need power in their system. Nothing against Wilfred Veras, but when the team's 28th-best prospect is considered to be the best power bat in the system, an upgraded is clearly needed.
I will say, going with a high-ceiling high school player who is much younger than LaViolette might be a swing the Sox need to take. Too often they have been drafting players with high floors, but lower ceilings.
LaViollette is considered the 7th-best draft prospect according to MLB Pipeline. Parker is ranked 14th.
With the No. 10 pick and the expectation that it will be a couple more years before the team is ready to be competitive, taking a shot at a player who grades well in all five areas of the game might be a better use of the pick.