For the first time ever, Major League Baseball is conducting a Draft Lottery to decide some of the picks in its amateur draft. That is a huge shift in the way that they do things as it makes it much less enticing to tank for a better draft position.
The Chicago White Sox will be participating in this event. It isn't good news that they are participating because that means that they didn't make the playoffs but it is what it is.
Picks 1-6 will be decided by the lottery. Picks 7-18 will be the non-lottery winners/non-playoff teams in reverse order of the 2022 standings. For 19-30, the picks will be determined based on the postseason finishes. Those 19-30th picks are already decided.
It was announced that the lottery is going to take place on December 6th, 2022 as a part of the Winter Meetings. That is sure to be exciting for all fans of teams that didn't make it into the Major League Baseball postseason. Although the chances are weighted, it is still fun.
The Chicago White Sox will be participating in the MLB Draft Lottery.
The White Sox have a 0.6 percent chance of winning the draft lottery. Obviously, those are small odds. They were a second-place team that had a chance at the postseason pretty much all season long. However, anything can happen with those first six picks so it is worth tuning in for.
The White Sox had an 81-81 record in 2022 which is the exact same record as the San Francisco Giants. However, the White Sox have slightly better odds (0.6 percent) than the Giants (0.5 percent) because the tiebreaker is the record from the year before.
In 2021, the White Sox had 93 wins which is great but the Giants had a remarkable 107 wins so the White Sox get the better draft lottery odds this year.
The Washington Nationals, Oakland A's, and Pittsburgh Pirates are all tied for the best odds at number one with 16.5 percent. The odds of one of them landing it are very high.
Every White Sox AL Central Division rival has a chance at this lottery besides the champion Cleveland Guardians. The Kansas City Royals had a 10.0 percent chance, the Detroit Tigers have a 7.5 percent chance, and the Minnesota Twins have a 0.9 percent chance.
This is a little bit different than the NHL or NBA Draft Lottery because those sports have talents at the top of the draft that could be impact players right away. With baseball, all of these kids are usually a couple of years or more away.
Still, the draft can be a very impactful event. We just saw the World Series MVP Jeremy Pena make big waves during the postseason. He was an MLB Draft player so you just never know. Maybe the White Sox will have a little luck on their side.