A's Spot in the MLB Draft Secured After Lottery

The Athletics spot in the MLB Draft was already known heading into Tuesday's Draft Lottery, given that they are a revenue sharing club and had picked in the top six for two straight seasons. That meant that the A's couldn't be slotted any higher than the tenth overall selection.

Yet, since the Chicago White Sox also held a lottery pick last draft, they too couldn't pick any higher than tenth. Following Chicago's epically bad 2024 season that resulted in 121 losses, they ended up with the No. 10 overall pick, while the A's are right behind them at No. 11.

Here's the 2025 MLB Draft order: https://t.co/OnU01qLQ7V pic.twitter.com/smVqK0fX0X
— MLB Draft (@MLBDraft) December 11, 2024

We should also note that since the A's signed Luis Severino and he was presented a qualifying offer from the New York Mets (which he turned down), that the Athletics will also have to forfeit their third draft selection in 2025. That could make the 2025 MLB Draft a bit rough for the Sacramento-bound A's, missing out on a top-10 selection despite a record that was fifth-worst in 2024, along with the loss of another high pick.

That said, there are already mock drafts out there, and there could still be plenty to get excited about. While the A's will be missing out on yet another of Matt Holliday's sons, with Ethan Holliday the presumed No. 1 overall pick, MLB.com has the Athletics projected to take Cam Cannarella out of Clemson.

Cannarella is a centerfield prospect that they say has some of the best bat-to-ball skills in this year's class, along with some terrific defense at a premium position. If he were to be available for the Athletics, that sounds like a combination of skills that they would be after.

The A's selected Jacob Wilson with the No. 6 overall pick in 2023, known mostly for his bat-to-ball skills, while they took Nick Kurtz with the No. 4 overall selection in 2024, who is an advanced hitter that controls the strike zone. Cannarella seems to be in that same type of mix.

Baseball America also posted their initial mock draft, and they have Cannarella going at No. 6 to the Pittsburgh Pirates. With that being the case, they had the A's taking Auburn catcher Ike Irish. They had this to say of the potential draftee:

"Irish was a top 200 prospect in 2022 coming out of the same St. Mary’s Prep program that developed Rangers right-hander Brock Porter. Viewed then as a power-over-hit offensive player, Irish has proven his hitting ability for two seasons with Auburn and is a career .343/.417/.582 hitter with a 15.1% strikeout rate and 10% walk rate.

"His contact skills now could be better than his power potential. After splitting time between catcher and outfield in 2024, Irish is expected to move into more full-time catching duties in 2025."

While A's fans will groan at the idea of taking another catcher in the first round, the fact that Irish has played some outfield and has good contact ability make him seem like a pretty decent fit in the organization.

There is still plenty of time in between now and the Draft, which will also include an entire college baseball season in there too. These mocks are meant to provide a snapshot in time to show where guys are kind of ranked at this point, not necessarily predict every pick. We'll see how everything shakes out on July 13.