NEWSLETTER
Baseball is back! Well, sort of. Smackdab in the middle of Winter Meetings (and the Cubs’ wanning efforts to sign Shohei Ohtani), we get the second-ever MLB Draft Lottery tonight live from Nashville!
How to Watch the MLB Draft Lottery
The MLB Draft Lottery will take place live from Nashville at 4:30 pm central time. MLB Network will broadcast the event.
How Does the Draft Lottery Work
In this offseason’s draft lottery, all but one of the 18 teams that did not make the playoffs will be entered. The only team that will not participate is the Washington Nationals. The Nationals are ineligible to be selected in this year’s lottery because they were selected in last year’s. The rest of these non-playoff teams will undergo a lottery process to determine the top six picks in the upcoming Draft. The following list presents the lottery teams in descending order of their winning percentages.
So to recap, the lottery is responsible for establishing the initial six draft picks, and the non-playoff teams that follow make their selections in the reverse order of their regular-season standings. Following that, the order for postseason teams is determined by the timing of their elimination, beginning with the Wild Card round and progressing through the AL and NL Division Series, Championship Series, and World Series. Pretty standard procedure after the lottery process.
For a full breakdown of the Winter Meetings event schedule and how to tune in to the Lottery, Rule 5 Draft, or general coverage, you can head to the MLB’s website here.
