Everything to Know For the A's Ahead of the Draft Lottery
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Despite coming off a 76-86 season in 2025, the Athletics will actually have a pretty decent shot at selecting near the top of the first round yet again thanks to some quirks of the CBA.
This is familiar territory for the A's, who held the No. 6 pick in 2023, using it on Jacob Wilson, and the No. 4 pick in 2024, taking Nick Kurtz. Those two finished first and second in the AL Rookie of the Year voting in 2025.
The 2026 MLB Draft will (hopefully) be the final time that the A's are selecting in the top few picks without needing to jump a number of spots or pulling off a small-sized miracle. The A's are expecting to make a jump towards postseason competition in 2026, which would leave them outside of the draft lottery system if they succeed.
When is the lottery, and how does it work?
MLB Network will air the MLB Draft Lottery on Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. PT to determine the first six club selections in the 2026 Draft. The draft will also be available to stream on MLB.com.
The lottery is a fairly new invention in Major League Baseball, and even though the A's have been one of the worst teams in baseball since its inception, they have never landed the top pick in the draft. Each team that does not qualify for the postseason is given odds to land the top pick, and the odds are distributed more or less in order of record, with the worse teams having better odds.
Each team's odds for the lottery
White Sox -- (27.73%), Twins -- (22.18%), Pirates -- (16.81%), Orioles -- (9.24%), A’s -- (6.55%), Braves -- (4.54%), Rays -- (3.03%), Cardinals -- (2.35%), Marlins -- (1.85%), D-backs -- (1.51%), Rangers -- (1.34%), Giants -- (1.01%), Royals -- (0.84%), Mets -- (0.67%), Astros -- 0.34%.
The aforementioned quirk is that the Colorado Rockies (43-119), Washington Nationals (66-96) and Los Angeles Angels (72-90) are all ineligible for the lottery (picks one through six) after selecting in the top-six picks a year ago.
All three teams can select as early as the 10th overall pick, which will go to the Rockies, since they finished with the worst record. Washington will get the 11th pick, followed by the Angels at 12.
It's the same quirk that knocked the A's to the 11th pick in the 2025 draft, where they were able to select Jamie Arnold.
While 6.55% isn't the highest odds to land the top pick, holding the best odds typically hasn't worked out for teams. Last year, the Nationals had the fourth-best odds and ended up with the top pick in 2025. The A's had the highest odds for the 2024 draft, and ended up fourth. The Guardians (2%) landed the top pick, while the Reds (0.9%) drafted second.
By comparison, the A's 6.5% seems like a lot.
The last time the A's had the No. 1 overall pick
The last time the A's had the No. 1 overall pick was in the first-ever MLB Draft in 1965. The Kansas City Athletics selected Rick Monday, who is most famous for crushing the hopes and dreams of the Montreal Expos in the 1981 NLCS as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Monday hit a go-ahead home run with two outs in the top of the ninth inning, sending L.A. to the World Series.
He was also a big piece of A's history, as he debuted in Kansas City in 1966, and then would spend five full seasons with the club through 1971. He was traded to the Chicago Cubs after the '71 season for ace Ken Holtzman, who ended up being an All Star in 1972 and 1973, while helping to lead the A's to three straight World Series championships.
Given that the last time the A's held the first overall pick was in the first draft, that's also the only time they've held the top pick in the draft. The following year, in 1966, they ended up with the second overall pick and made their best first-round selection of all-time, taking Reggie Jackson.
Jason has been covering the A’s at various sites for over a decade, and was the original host of the Locked on A’s podcast. He also covers the Stanford Cardinal as they attempt to rebuild numerous programs to prominence.
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