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Mike Rizzo and Matt Adams of the Washington Nationals greet Charles Johnson of the Miami Marlins after the Nationals win the number one pick during the Draft Lottery at the 2024 MLB Winter Meetings at Hilton Anatole on Tuesday, December 10, 2024 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
The Nationals won this year’s draft lottery and will have the first overall pick in the 2025 draft. But who were the other winners and losers from the results?
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Winners
Mariners — No. 3 overall pick
Seattle was the biggest winner of this year’s draft lottery, going from 17th overall under the previous system to the third pick despite having just a 0.4% chance to earn the first overall pick. The pick capital is great, but as always with baseball’s draft, the slot value that comes with the picks are equally—or more—important. The Mariners should have some of the most bonus pool money to spend in the 2025 draft now that they’ve got the third overall pick (which had a slot value of $9,070,800 in the 2024 draft) as well as the third pick in the supplemental first round. A great farm system should keep getting better. This is the highest the Mariners have drafted since the 2012 draft when they took catcher Mike Zunino.
Angels — No. 2 overall pick
In a vacuum the Angels didn’t move up much more than their third-best odds (17.96%) might indicate, but the team did avoid falling—like both the Rockies and Marlins did—and they are in a position where they could use an infusion of talent as the 30th-ranked farm system on our midseason org rankings. The Angels have pursued an aggressive draft strategy in recent years that involves signing fast-moving collegians. Whether or not they continue that path is an open question, but picking second in most classes will give them access to that sort of player profile who also gives them more upside potential. Early college names to think about for the Angels include Texas A&M outfielder Jace Laviolette and college starters Tyler Bremner and Jamie Arnold.
Losers
Marlins — No. 7 overall pick
The Marlins had equal odds with the Rockies (22.45%) for the top overall pick in the draft but find themselves outside of the top six draft lottery selections entirely. While the Marlins have an exciting, high upside southpaw leading the way in the farm system currently, it’s a group that falls off quickly and could use reinforcements to help the Marlins return to a competitive level in the majors. The 2025 draft will mark the eighth time the Marlins have picked inside the first 10 picks, but in five of those drafts they’ve picked sooner than No. 7 overall.
Blue Jays — No. 8 overall pick
The 2024 season didn’t go the way the Blue Jays wanted and just days after missing out on Juan Soto (to the degree that they were truly finalists in that race) they also missed out on a lottery pick despite having the fifth-best odds to get one. The Blue Jays now find themselves picking eighth, which is their highest selection since they took Austin Martin fifth overall in the covid-shortened 2020 draft.
Cold Comfort
White Sox — 10th
If you wanted to say the White Sox were losers in this year’s draft lottery before it started, that would be fair. Under the previous system the organization would’ve known for weeks now that they could at least look forward to the first overall pick. Because of the new CBA and draft lottery system, the team was instead prevented from picking sooner than 10th overall. But, as JJ Cooper details, if the White Sox had been eligible in this year’s draft lottery, they would only be picking sixth overall.
Athletics — 11th
After picking inside the top six lottery picks in each of the last two drafts, the A’s were also ineligible to pick sooner than 11th this year. Like the White Sox, the A’s didn’t miss out on too much given the way the ping pong balls fell, because had they been eligible they wouldn’t have received a lottery pick regardless. Picking 11th might still sting for A’s fans, but they at least don’t have to go through the “what ifs” that Nationals fans did a year ago.
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