Pirates win top pick in MLB's 1st draft lottery; Nationals to select 2nd

The Pittsburgh Pirates won baseball's first draft lottery Tuesday night and will get the first pick of eligible amateur players in July.

The Washington Nationals will select second after finishing last season with the worst record in the majors at 55-107. The Detroit Tigers will choose third.

"Every once in a while in this game, as we all know, it helps to get a little bounce — and we got one tonight," Pirates general manager Ben Cherington said during an interview on MLB Network.

The Minnesota Twins also were big winners, moving up from 13th in the pre-draft order based on their 2022 record to fifth when the ping pong balls were plucked at baseball's winter meetings.

Oakland was a significant loser, falling from the second-worst record to the No. 6 draft pick.

The Nationals, Athletics and Pirates entered the lottery with the best chance for the No. 1 pick at 16.5 per cent for each team.

It will be the sixth time the Pirates pick first and second in three years. They snagged Louisville catcher Henry Davis with the top choice in 2021.

"When you get closer it helps your war game a little bit because you know you're picking first and you can kind of manage it," Cherington said. "But in terms of the process of getting to know the players, it won't change much. We were going to get to know the players at the top of the board anyway. But this is exciting."

The lottery was instituted this year as part of Major League Baseball's labour agreement with the players' association in March, a measure intended to discourage tanking for top draft picks among struggling teams.

All 18 clubs that failed to make the 2022 postseason were part of the lottery and eligible to win the No. 1 pick.

"I thought it was great," Cherington said with a smile. "We're incredibly excited — honored to be in this position for the first draft lottery. Obviously young players are such an important part of our future, and excited to get a chance to make the first selection next year."

Toronto assigned No. 20 pick

The draft order for playoff teams has changes as well. Rather than teams drafting strictly in a reverse order from the previous year's standings, the order is determined by a system that combines the previous year's standings, their post-season finish and revenue sharing status.

The Toronto Blue Jays are assigned the No. 20 pick.

Pittsburgh and Cincinnati tied for the third-worst record in the majors this year at 62-100, but the Pirates got into the top odds tier because they had a worse record than the Reds in 2021.

"When you're picking up high in the draft, we know that that's really important. Whether it's 1 or 3 or 5, we've got to get those picks right and bring good players in," Cherington said. "So I don't feel like it's more pressure. We've had practice with it obviously recently. I anticipate and certainly hope we will not be sitting in this seat in future years. But we're going to take advantage of this one."

Kansas City, which had a 10 per cent chance for the top pick, will choose eighth. Detroit entered with the sixth-best odds to win at 7.5 per cent and jumped up to the No. 3 pick.