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The first day of the 2026 MLB draft is complete, with the Chicago White Sox making Roch Cholowsky the No. 1 selection.
The next three picks came off the board as expected, the Tampa Bay Rays grabbing high school shortstop Grady Emerson, the Minnesota Twins taking Georgia Tech catcher Vahn Lackey and the San Francisco Giants selecting UC Santa Barbara ace Jackson Flora — and then the surprises began.
What were the most intriguing picks in the four rounds that took place Saturday in Philadelphia? Let’s break down the best — and most head-scratching — moves of the draft’s first day, as well as predict who will be the steals of this draft class.
There were three good options that would feel like the right choice here, so it was hard to make a bad call on draft day. The challenge here for the White Sox is if this will look like the right pick in one year, then in three or five years. You could argue Cholowsky has the lowest upside of the group and the highest floor, but that would be splitting hairs, because all three of the top prospects are a coin flip on overall talent, with slight variations in risk, floor and upside.
Lackey and Cholowsky will get there quicker than Emerson — I think that, along with overall risk, was a factor here. But the White Sox didn’t just play it safe: They might have an everyday, sometimes All-Star shortstop in the big-league lineup as soon as the end of 2027. Scouts mention players like Dansby Swanson and Alex Bregman as comps.
Eric Booth Jr. to the Baltimore Orioles (No. 7): He has arguably the biggest upside in the draft, but some teams weren’t as eager to take him where I had him ranked (fifth) because he’ll need a tweak to his timing mechanism and how his hands enter the hitting zone. That sounds serious, but a number of evaluators think it’s doable, and Booth Jr. is the kind of person who can do it. The payoff could be a 30/30 type of upside in center field, and there was recently another Mississippi prep position player with a similar scouting report: Konnor Griffin.
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Jared Grindlinger to the Los Angeles Angels (No. 12): The buzz coming into the draft was that the Angels’ scouting staff was going to have the keys to the car under interim GM John Mozeliak. They had been tied to a couple of high school players, but the board was giving them mostly college talent. There was buzz during the draft that Grindlinger had a big verbal deal set up behind the Angels, but Los Angeles took the high-upside high school player in the first round for the first time since Jordyn Adams. I don’t know what the Angels’ plan is, but the majority of the league was planning to let him play the outfield and pitch (he’s a lefty who throws up to 97 mph, and is 17 years old), at least to some degree.
Jacob Lombard to the Miami Marlins (No. 14): Yes, all high school players. Lombard is a classic high risk/high reward pick with the tool set of an All-Star (above to plus run, sticks at shortstop and plus-plus power), but with the bust risk you’re often scared of with a high school player (30% strikeout rate in summer showcases, very high in-zone miss rate). At pick 14 in the weaker part of the draft, this potential reward is worth the risk. After Lombard, the Marlins added two safer college starters with their next two picks.
There was late buzz that the Atlanta Braves were leaning toward going underslot with both of their first two picks at ninth and 26th. I’m almost certain they’ll be getting AJ Gracia (ninth pick; OF from Virginia) at a good bit below slot, but their next pick, Carter Beck (OF from Indiana State), should be well underslot.
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Gracia was 24th on my final board and battled a shoulder injury this season, so scouting him wasn’t simple. He had interest from some other teams inside of the top 10, but there were also some teams in the 20s that weren’t sure if they’d take him if he got to them; a split more common with high school players, due to the lack of information. Beck’s market was surging late, but I thought he’d go in the back half of the second round where there were multiple suitors.
These are both good players and I’ll be curious to see what the savings are on each pick and who the Braves can land later. At press time, I really liked their second-rounder, prep RHP Kaiden McCarthy (52nd on my board), and they took what many considered to be an unsignable prep RHP Jensen Hirschkorn (58th on my board) with their third-round pick. Hirschkorn’s price was rumored to be around $3 million, which is exactly what the Braves paid prep LHP Briggs McKenzie in the fourth round last year. In the fourth round (112th overall pick), they took another likely overslot high school arm I like, RHP Cole Dennis from Florida, ranked 113th on my draft board.
I’ve been stumping for Trevor Condon for almost a year as a very high floor and high probability big leaguer from the high school class. He also fits in a similar category as a previous “plant my flag” guy from the 2023 draft: Kevin McGonigle.
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I wouldn’t expect that outcome if I were a Cardinals fan, but both players were plus hitters with real defensive value but shorter stature; Condon is a plus runner with an intense personality, has strong pull/lift traits in his swing already, and is a strong center field defender. He could just be a low-end starter, but this sort of player is often underrated at this stage. The list of shorter position players who blew past their projections to make All-Star teams is quite long now.
Some other guys I’m enthusiastic about include Ace Reese (plus game power, lefty hitter, should move quickly, maybe as a first baseman), Logan Hughes (similar idea, a bit more hit tool, fits in left field), Justin Lebron (big upside, swing/approach seem fixable to me, but not every team agrees) and Jack Radel (a little more velo and he could be a midrotation starter; has all the traits).
There were indeed a lot of surprises and well underslot picks in the back of the first round, as was rumored. The depth of the draft being a bit worse than usual after the first half dozen players or so caused teams to see less value in the players asking for full slot value in the 20s. So, you saw Hughes (29th on my board, 17th pick), Jake Schaffner (51st on my board, 20th pick), Beck (69th on my board, 26th pick) and Carson Wiggins (89th on my board, 27th pick) jumping up, even if some of those specific players (like Schaffner and Hughes) were seen as possibly rising into the first round if they’d take a deal a few weeks ago.
At the same time, more consensus college talents with interest in the 20s and 30s lasted until the 40s and 50s; sometimes this is due to medical concerns I didn’t hear about, sometimes downward momentum spirals when teams aren’t prepared to draft a player who unexpectedly falls. Sometimes a player like Connor Prielipp sails past the 15th-25th area he was supposed to go in, landing 48th in 2022 and is now in a big league rotation with an above average strikeout rate.
40. Archer Horn, SS, St. Ignatius Prep HS (CA), Stanford commit
49. Sean Dunlap, C, Crown Point HS (IN), Tennessee commit
59. Blake Bowen, CF, JSerra Catholic HS (CA), Oregon State commit
72. James Tronstein, SS, Harvard Westlake HS (CA), Vanderbilt commit
79. Martin Shelar, CF, Marist HS (GA), Mississippi State commit
80. Dominic Santarelli, LF, St. Joseph Catholic HS (WI), LSU commit
81. Joseph Contreras, RHP, Blessed Trinity Catholic HS (GA), Vanderbilt commit
84. Malachi Washington, CF, Parkview HS (GA), LSU commit
85. Alex Weingartner, CF, St. Augustine Prep HS (NJ), Penn State commit
86. Bo Holloway, LHP, Christ Presbyterian HS (TN), Vanderbilt commit
90. Gunner Skelton, SS, Columbia Academy HS (TN), Vanderbilt commit
92. Will Gasparino, CF, UCLA
93. Bryce Hill, RHP, Greenwich Country Day HS (CT), Stanford commit
96. Gary Morse, RHP, Orange Lutheran HS (CA), Tennessee commit
99. Denton Lord, RHP, South Walton HS (FL), Mississippi State
100. Jason Amalbert, SS, DePaul Catholic HS (NJ), Oklahoma commit
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