Inside The 2026 Draft Lottery: Rays Win Big, Mets Come So Close

White Sox Lock In Early

There was little drama at the top of the draft this year. The simple rule is high-numbered ping pong balls mean teams with low odds could win. Low numbers belong to the teams with the highest odds.

In the first drawing, the ping pong ball air machine turned on. Jack Clark pushed the button to open the air tube for the first time and No. 13 popped up.

13. High number.

But the second ping pong ball to pop up was No. 1. Low number. Only two ping pong balls in, the White Sox already had a strong grip on the No. 1 pick. Unless a No. 2, 3 or 4 came up in the final two ping pong balls, the White Sox would claim the top pick.

There were no more low numbers. The No. 11 ping pong ball was followed by the 12th.

And with that, the White Sox have a chance to make a franchise-altering pick.

It also means the White Sox were winners for not being eligible for last year’s lottery. They had “won” the sixth pick in the draft in the 2025 lottery, but they were ineligible, making it a null draw. If the White Sox had picked sixth last year, they would have been ineligible to pick first this year.

A Run Of Null Draws Followed

At that point, the second draw saw a familiar team win it. The Nationals’ had a large number of the combinations if No. 2 was pulled. 9-11-2-14 meant the Nationals “won.” But the Nationals were ineligible to pick in the lottery, so it was declared a null draw.

The White Sox then “won” again with the third draw. Having already won the No. 1 pick, that was also a null draw. The Rays became the first big surprise when they won the fourth draw to claim the second pick. The Rays only had 18 of the 1,001 number combinations, but 10-12-6-14 was one of those.

The Nationals then “won” again on back-to-back draws, as once again the No. 2 ping pong ball popped up.

And then the White Sox “won” again as well. So seven draws in, there were only two picks finalized.

We weren’t done. The first draw of the eighth draw was No. 1. The only possible combinations with if a one was drawn were wins for the White Sox (who already had won) and the Rockies (who were ineligible). This time the Rockies “won” and another null draw was declared.

The Nationals came up again with the ninth draw. At this point the Nationals had been pulled four times in nine draws, even if they couldn’t win a pick.

At this point, people in the room started checking their watches. This drawing had now gone on for 15 minutes and it wasn’t halfway through.

Real Picks Begin To Land

The 10th draw brought an actual result. The Twins claimed the third pick (3-9-5-13).

High numbers and chaos arrived with the 11th draw. The first ball was 12, the second was 14 and the third was 11. The Mets had only four number combinations that would win them a lottery pick. It meant even more to them because unless they won the lottery, their first-round pick would be pushed back 10 spots because they exceeded the second luxury tax threshold.

Mets scouting director Kris Gross was the only team representative who came to witness the draw. He was clearly trying to will the No. 10 ping pong ball through the tube.

It was an eight. The Giants, a team with only eight number combinations, had the fourth pick.

The Angels’ numbers came up with the 12th draw, which meant that all three ineligible teams had seen their number called.

With the 13th draw, the Pirates number came up (8-3-9-14). Unfortunately for the Pirates, this may be losing by winning. They had solid odds to land a top pick. Instead, they finished with a pick slightly higher than they would if they had failed to win the lottery. Because they also won the fifth pick last year, they will be ineligible to have a lottery pick next year.

Remember how the Giants only had eight number combinations? They won again with the 14th draw. Then the Twins, Angels, Twins and Pirates saw their numbers come up in the 15th through 18th draws.

Final Pick Comes Down To One Ball

To select six picks, it took more than three times as many draws to get to those six picks. 

With the 19th draw, the first ball was 14, the second was 11, the third was nine.

If the fourth ball was 10 or 13, the Mets would win the sixth pick. They had the best odds of having their number called at that point. Gross took a deep breath, intensely focused on the path of a ping pong ball. 

That final number was clearly a double digit number. Clark picked it out, held it up and showed it to the assembled group.

“Twelve.”

That was a Royals combination. Gross knew that his team came one ping pong ball away twice from a dramatically higher pick and the bonus pool allotment pick that comes with it. Instead, the Mets will now pick 27th.