Draft MLB Lottery Rules Explained

Explanation of how the Draft MLB lottery worked in its first season.

For the first time in Major League Baseball history, this year’s MLB draft will use a lottery system to determine part of the draft order. In the past, the draft was determined by the reverse standings of the regular season that had just ended.

Such a system may sound familiar to NBA and NHL fans.

It was the NBA that pioneered the concept of the draft lottery, using the system since the 1985 draft.

With respect to the NHL, the order of selection was determined solely by standings at the end of the previous year’s regular season.

Major League Baseball, like the NBA and NHL, will enter every team not eliminated from the previous season into the lottery.

MLB Lottery Rules Explained

The main difference between the MLB lottery is that there will be six determined places. In the NBA, there are four spots while the NHL has only two.

Another important difference between the new MLB lottery is that some teams are not allowed to participate in the event in subsequent years. This means that teams from large markets (i.e. teams that do not benefit from revenue sharing) cannot participate in the event two years in a row and teams from small markets cannot. do three years in a row.

Draft MLB Lottery Odds

• Choice 1-6: Lottery
• Pick 7-18: Non-postseason, non-lottery teams, in reverse order of previous year’s standings.
• Pick 19-22: Wild Card Series losers.
• Pick 23-26: Division Series Losers
• Pick 27-28: Championship Series losers
• Choice 29: World Series Losers
• Choice 30: World Series Winner

Under new MLB draft rules negotiated under the collective labor agreement (CBA), the worst team from the previous season is no longer even guaranteed a top-6 spot with the new lottery. This new rule was put in place to limit non-competitive behavior commonly referred to as “tanking”.