2024 MLB Draft lottery: Guardians win first top pick in club history, followed by Reds, Rockies
The A's, Royals and Rockies entered Tuesday's draft lottery with the best odds for the first pick
The Cleveland Guardians rode some great luck to their first No. 1 overall pick in the MLB Draft in franchise history.
Entering the lottery with the ninth-best odds, at 2.0% for the top pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, the Guardians emerged victorious Tuesday at the winter meetings in Nashville.
The Cincinnati Reds jumped from the 13th-best odds for the top pick (0.9%) to No. 2 overall, a nice reward after they finished the season with a winning record but out of the playoffs. The next four picks landed with the Colorado Rockies, Oakland Athletics, Chicago White Sox and Kansas City Royals, the four teams that entered the lottery with the best odds.
Where the top 6 picks went in the 2024 MLB Draft lottery
Below you can see how the top six picks would've gone if the 2024 MLB Draft were set by record and which teams ended up getting those picks, with their odds for the top pick in parenthesis.
1. Oakland Athletics (18.3%) → Guardians
2. Kansas City Royals (18.3%) → Reds
3. Colorado Rockies (18.3%) → Rockies
4. Chicago White Sox (14.7%) → Athletics
5. St. Louis Cardinals (8.3%) → White Sox
6. Los Angeles Angels (6.1%) → Royals
The Washington Nationals would've had the fifth-best odds for the first pick, but their winning the No. 2 pick in the 2023 draft and their status as a revenue-sharing payor made them ineligible to win a pick this year and guaranteed that they would pick no earlier than 10th.
That turned into some rough luck, as Baseball America's J.J. Cooper reports that the Nationals actually had their pingpong ball combination come in for the first pick of the draft. The league declared that drawing void and picked again, giving the Guardians the win.
The A's will be subject to the same rule next year, as no team is allowed to win a pick three years in a row. The A's won the sixth pick in the 2023 draft.
Why the Mets, Padres and Yankees fell more than any other teams
While the A's and Nats suffered most, the actual biggest fallers were the New York Mets, San Diego Padres and New York Yankees — not coincidentally the teams with the three biggest payrolls last season.
The Mets had the seventh-best odds in the lottery, the Padres 14th and the Yankees 15th, but the twist was they needed to win a top-six pick in the lottery in order to avoid having their picks moved back 10 slots because they exceeded a certain luxury-tax threshold. After none of them had the ping-pong balls fall in their favor, they will pick 19th (Mets), 24th (Padres) and 25th (Yankees).
Devin Mesoraco called his shot for the Reds
The Reds' representative for the lottery was former catcher Devin Mesoraco, who tweeted the following the morning before the draft:
Reds fans after today: “Remember that time we sent Devin Mesoraco to the draft lottery to appeal to the baseball Gods for all the surgery’s and DL time he had and we got a top 3 pick”. pic.twitter.com/8zfInOPRqH
— Devin Mesoraco (@DMesoraco) December 5, 2023
Maybe the Reds should have him do this every year.
Full 2024 MLB Draft order
1. Cleveland Guardians
2. Cincinnati Reds
3. Colorado Rockies
4. Oakland Athletics
5. Chicago White Sox
6. Kansas City Royals
7. St. Louis Cardinals
8. Los Angeles Angels
9. Pittsburgh Pirates
10. Washington Nationals
11. Detroit Tigers
12. Boston Red Sox
13. San Francisco Giants
14. Chicago Cubs
15. Seattle Mariners
16. Miami Marlins
17. Milwaukee Brewers
18. Tampa Bay Rays
19. New York Mets
20. Toronto Blue Jays
21. Minnesota Twins
22. Baltimore Orioles
23. Los Angeles Dodgers
24. Atlanta Braves
25. San Diego Padres
26. New York Yankees
27. Philadelphia Phillies
28. Houston Astros
29. Arizona Diamondbacks
30. Texas Rangers
