PHILADELPHIA — The Chicago White Sox, already sitting atop the AL Central standings, made what many considered the obvious choice Saturday by selecting UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky as the first overall pick in Major League Baseball’s amateur draft.
Standing 6-foot-2 and batting right-handed, Cholowsky was a Golden Spikes Award finalist during his time at UCLA. In his junior season, he put up a 1.088 OPS to go along with 21 home runs and 60 RBIs, earning him Big Ten Player of the Year honors.
White Sox general manager Chris Getz praised the selection, saying: “Roch, his family and his support structure impressed us throughout the entire process, and his experience at UCLA certainly prepared him to take the next step as a professional. An outstanding defensive shortstop, Roch brings an impact bat to any lineup, and he is a leader on the field as well as in the clubhouse. He has more than lived up to very high expectations, and we cannot wait to get him into our organization, get started and see him continue his growth and success.”
The next two picks also went largely as analysts had forecast. Tampa Bay used the second pick to grab Texas high school shortstop Grady Emerson, while Minnesota went third and selected Georgia Tech catcher Vahn Lackey.
At just 18 years old, Emerson — a 6-foot-3, 185-pound left-handed hitter who throws right — is widely viewed as the most complete player available in this year’s draft. A University of Texas commit, Emerson moved to Fort Worth Christian for his senior year, where he played under head coach Rusty Greer, a nine-year MLB veteran who spent his entire career with the Texas Rangers.
Lackey, 21, didn’t draw a single Division I offer until his senior year of high school but has since developed into one of the draft’s premier catching prospects at Georgia Tech. The 6-foot-2, 215-pound Lackey also showed flexibility by playing third base at times.
San Francisco grabbed right-handed pitcher Jackson Flora — known for his love of fried chicken — out of UC Santa Barbara with the fourth pick. Pittsburgh followed by selecting LSU outfielder Derek Curiel fifth. Louisville outfielder Zion Rose went sixth to Kansas City, and Oak Grove High School outfielder Eric Booth Jr. from Mississippi landed with Baltimore at seventh.
Oakland chose Georgia Tech outfielder Drew Burress eighth, Atlanta took Virginia outfielder AJ Gracia ninth, and Colorado rounded out the top ten by picking Kentucky shortstop Tyler Bell.
The draft, held at a Philadelphia convention center just a few miles from Citizens Bank Park — home of Tuesday’s MLB All-Star Game — drew hundreds of fans, including former White Sox and Phillies players Jimmy Rollins and Greg Luzinski. For Chicago, this marks the first time the franchise has held the top draft pick since selecting Harold Baines in 1977. Baines was later inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2019.
The White Sox earned the No. 1 pick after losing 102 games last season and winning the draft lottery. The team has endured three consecutive 100-loss seasons but has since turned things around dramatically. Led by All-Star third baseman Miguel Vargas, Chicago entered Saturday in first place in the AL Central and is viewed as one of the biggest surprises in baseball this year. The organization hopes Cholowsky can one day help the franchise win its first World Series title since 2005.
Cholowsky becomes the first collegiate shortstop selected first overall since Vanderbilt’s Dansby Swanson in 2015 and the first UCLA player to go No. 1 since Gerrit Cole in 2011.
Notably, none of the draft prospects were present at the event in Philadelphia. MLB announced Friday that no amateur players were scheduled to attend — consistent with last year’s approach. Major League Baseball has floated the idea of requiring prospects to attend as part of collective bargaining negotiations, with a proposal that would bring up to 10 players to the draft, each receiving a $50,000 attendance bonus.
In the absence of the players, the loudest cheer of the evening went to the Phillie Phanatic during a mascot introduction segment. Phillies fans directed boos at the Braves’ mascot Blooper and also greeted MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred with jeers — though Manfred managed to win the crowd over somewhat by referencing celebrated names from Phillies history before the draft began. Manfred did stumble at the podium, mispronouncing Cholowsky’s name. For the record, it’s pronounced chil-OW’-skee.
MLB Network’s Siera Santos summed up the evening’s promise for the crowd: “We’re going to see the arrival of tremendous talent today” — even if that talent was watching from somewhere other than Philadelphia.
