The clock is ticking for the ping pong balls to start bouncing and determine the future homes of MLB’s next wave of talent. Between the 2026 class shaping up to be one of the better groups of this century, and the results of lotteries past triggering numerous stipulations, this lottery reveal has a chance to be the most chaotic one yet. As a reminder, you can check out the action on Tuesday, December 9th at 5:30 PM EST on the MLB Network. After the event, you can begin researching prospects to target with the Prospects Live Top 50s on College and Prep players, and numerous articles covering intriguing players that did not crack the lists.

The lottery was started after the 2022 season in an effort to limit “tanking” in baseball. In each of the first three lotteries, chaos has taken over. In every lottery, the team slated to select first has yet to hold their spot, and a separate team has made an at least 7-pick jump into the top 6. The percentages for each pick in MLB’s system are smoothed out more than any other league that uses a lottery system, so that teams are discouraged from positioning themselves for a better draft pick. In sum, this has created mayhem in the draft order and in MLB’s rulebooks; lottery chaos just creates more future lottery chaos.

Before we dive into each team’s outlook, here is a brief reminder of the base rules in determining the draft order: 

  • A lottery drawing of non-playoff teams selects picks 1-6.
  • Picks 7-18 are the remaining lottery teams, ordered by winning percentage.

The remaining picks go to playoff teams, which are grouped by the round in which they are eliminated, with revenue-sharing recipients picking first.

  • Teams eliminated in the Wild Card Round get picks 19-22.
  • Teams eliminated in the Divisional Round get picks 23-26.
  • Teams eliminated in the League Championship Series get picks 27-28.
  • World Series loser gets pick 29.
  • World Series winner gets pick 30.
  • Teams receiving revenue sharing cannot be selected in the lottery (selections 1-6) more than two years in a row.
  • Teams paying revenue sharing cannot be selected in the lottery (1-6) in consecutive years.
  • If a team is in a position to violate either of the two above rules, they can not select higher than 10th.
  • Ties are broken using the previous year's standings, with the team with the worst record winning the tiebreaker.
  • If a team is not selected in the lottery and has spent over $40M more than the Competitive-Balance Tax (CBT) threshold, their first pick will be moved down 10 selections.

If you’re confused, don’t worry! Here is a team-by-team breakdown of how the order of the 2026 MLB Draft will be determined, in descending order.