It’s not often that division-leading teams find themselves with the top selections in baseball’s amateur draft — but that’s exactly where the Chicago White Sox and Tampa Bay Rays landed this past weekend.
Chicago used the first overall pick to select shortstop Roch Cholowsky out of UCLA, while Tampa Bay grabbed shortstop Grady Emerson right behind him at No. 2. Both franchises are currently sitting in first place in their respective divisions.
Unlike other professional sports drafts, baseball holds its draft in the middle of the ongoing season rather than the offseason. That timing means teams that struggled the year before can sometimes rebound dramatically by the time draft day arrives. The White Sox dropped 102 games last season and the Rays lost 85 — yet both clubs have turned things around and are now legitimate contenders while also securing potentially valuable young talent for the future.
A look back at a few clubs that won 90 or more games in the same year they held the top draft pick:
2008 Rays (97-65)
That season marked Tampa Bay’s fourth No. 1 selection in a decade, and the Rays haven’t held that spot since. The 2008 campaign ended with a World Series appearance, signaling the start of a much more successful era for the franchise. However, the Rays didn’t fully capitalize on that final top pick — they chose infielder Tim Beckham while Eric Hosmer and Buster Posey were selected later in the top five.
2024 Guardians (92-69)
Cleveland won the draft lottery and then went on to claim the AL Central title. Their top selection, Travis Bazzana, has already made his major league debut earlier this season.
1984 Mets (90-72)
New York began building toward its mid-1980s dynasty that year, finishing 6.5 games behind first place in the NL East while Dwight Gooden earned Rookie of the Year honors. The Mets would win a World Series two years later, though their 1984 draft pick — outfielder Shawn Abner — never actually suited up for them.
1977 White Sox (90-72)
Chicago jumped from 64 wins to 90 that year, though the surge didn’t last long. Still, the White Sox landed a future Hall of Famer in that draft: Harold Baines, who went on to play more than 20 years in the majors and was part of division championship teams in Chicago in both 1983 and 2000.
Cholowsky’s selection made him the first UCLA player to go first overall since Gerrit Cole in 2011. Interestingly, another UCLA product drafted in the first round has accumulated even more career wins above replacement than Cole — that player was Chase Utley, taken 15th overall in 2000, who compiled a 64.6 WAR according to Baseball Reference.
In other baseball news, the New York Mets squandered a big lead against Kansas City on Tuesday night. After Juan Soto’s three-run homer in the bottom of the fourth gave the Mets a 9-4 advantage — and a 94.2% win probability according to Baseball Savant — the Royals rallied with five runs in the fifth inning and seven more in the seventh to claim a stunning 16-12 victory.
The Mets’ rough stretch continued Sunday when they blew a two-run lead in the ninth inning and fell to Boston 3-2 in ten innings. The rival Yankees, meanwhile, swept three straight games in Washington by coming from behind in the eighth inning or later in each contest.
Toronto’s Dylan Cease nearly threw a no-hitter Wednesday, carrying the bid into the ninth inning of a 10-0 win over San Francisco. He finished allowing just one hit over eight-plus innings while striking out 11 batters.
Kansas City’s Tyler Tolbert had a standout performance in that comeback win over the Mets, going 5-for-6 with a home run. In doing so, he tied a major league record by recording hits in 12 consecutive plate appearances.
