The rules of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) prevent the Chicago White Sox from picking any better than 10th overall in the upcoming MLB Draft.
Because big market teams are not allowed to pick in the lottery two years in a row, the White Sox, who drafted fifth overall in 2024, are now stuck with the 10th overall pick despite a 41-121 record last year.
Given the state of the organization when GM Chris Getz took over and the multi-year rebuild that is at hand, the updated CBA rules are debilitating. Thankfully, it might end up working out in Chicago’s favor.
There are good draft classes and bad draft classes. Any given year could turn out to be 2016 - when there was not a single future MLB All-Star selected in the entire first round. Then there’s the 2019 MLB Draft, which had Adley Rutschmann, Bobby Witt Jr., Riley Greene, CJ Abrams, Josh Jung, Bryson Stott, and Corbin Carroll all selected in the front half of the first round.
While the Sox cannot pick in the lottery in 2025, they are in a prime position to get one of the top selections in the 2026 draft. The Colorado Rockies, who are currently the only team with a worse record that the Sox, are ineligible for the lottery next season. And if there’s a draft class to be picking at the top of, it’s 2026.
The White Sox got lucky with the 2026 draft class and they’re now primed to get a generational talent at a premium position.
The 2026 draft class is stacked
According to Baseball America, the 2026 draft class is absolutely loaded with high school talent. It’s one of the best prep classes we have seen in years and the 2026 MLB Draft is looking like it’s going to be ripe with future stars. The same cannot be said of the 2025 draft.
“The 2026 high school class is one of the most loaded classes we have ever seen,” says a recent video from Baseball America previewing the top prep players in the class of 2026. “We have multiple shortstops who could go number one overall in the MLB Draft, we have elite hitters, huge power bats, freak athletes, pitchers throwing mid 90s at 16 years old and flashing wipe out breaking balls.”
The White Sox could very well end up with the No. 1 overall pick next year, depending on how the draft lottery treats them. That would change everything about the future of the organization. At the very least, you'd have to think the Sox end up with a Top 3 selection.
While Chicago has built a solid farm system over the last few years, the organization is still pitching heavy. MLB talents like Jonathan Cannon, Drew Thorpe, Shane Smith, and Davis Martin are promising. The White Sox also have Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith, who are the two best left-handed pitching prospects in all of baseball. There’s a lot to love on the pitching front, but the Sox needed position players desperately.
Sox fans will be pleased to know that the seven highest-rated prep talents in the 2026 class are all position players.
Elite prep talent
Kevin Roberts Jr. (No. 3) is a 6-foot-5, 215-pound centerfielder from Mississippi that could end up with 70 raw power on the 20-80 scale by the time he is drafted. He is a freak athlete with a huge arm, experience at both center field and shortstop, and will still be 17 on draft day of 2026.
Roberts has very little “swing and miss” in his profile for a high school talent with such an impressive power tool.
Jacob Lombard (No. 2) is a polished shortstop from Florida. He is the son of Detroit Tigers bench coach George Lombard and the brother of George Lombard Jr., who was a first round pick by the New York Yankees in 2023 and is currently the No. 96 prospect in baseball.
Lombard is going to stick at shortstop. He’s “ultra athletic” with a high-end run tool and is starting to come into his power stroke. Baseball America considers him a “legitimate candidate” to be the number one overall pick next year.
Grady Emerson (No. 1) is a left-handed hitting shortstop from Texas that catches the eyes of scouts for being a pure hitter to all fields. He too has very little swing and miss in his profile and tremendous control of the strike zone for a prep bat.
Every expectation is that the 6-foot-2, 180 pound infielder will stick and shortstop and develop more power as he fills out his frame. He is currently the favorite to be selected No. 1 overall.
A lot can change between now and the draft. These rankings will get a good shakeup as we learn more about these prospects. But the 2026 MLB Draft might have one of the most loaded talent pools we have ever seen. For a team like the White Sox that could be picking at the top of the board, it should inject their organization with some much-needed superstar upside.