The Washington Nationals were awarded the No. 1 overall pick during the 2025 MLB Draft Lottery on Tuesday night at the Winter Meetings in Dallas, Texas.
The Nationals finished with a 71-91 record during the 2024 season and entered with only a 10.2% chance of securing the first pick.
“It was incredible; it’s something that’s a good lucky bounce for us,” general manager Mike Rizzo said in a statement. “We’ll get the player of our choice, we’ll get money added to the player pool, which we can allocate in different ways throughout the Draft.
“We’ve got our work cut out for us, but [vice president of amateur scouting] Danny Haas and [senior director of amateur scouting] Brad [Ciolek] and [assistant director and national crosschecker] Reed Dunn, they’ll do a hell of a job finding the right player and employing the right strategy throughout.”
The Nationals have picked first only two other times in franchise history, which occurred during the 2009 and 2010 MLB Drafts. They added a pair of franchise cornerstones in Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper with those selections.
The Colorado Rockies and Miami Marlins had the best odds to land the first overall pick in next year’s MLB Draft at 22.5%. Instead, they fell to Nos. 4 and 7, respectively.
The Seattle Mariners had just a 0.5% of winning the lottery and ended up getting the No. 3 pick, which represented the biggest jump of any team.
The Chicago White Sox and Athletics would have qualified for the lottery based on their 2024 record but were not eligible to participate due to being a “payor club” and “payee club,” respectively.
The Kansas City Royals were awarded the No. 28 pick in the 2025 MLB Draft due to Bobby Witt Jr.’s second-place finish in American League Rookie of the Year voting.
The Milwaukee Brewers will also receive a compensation pick in Competitive Balance Round A for losing Willy Adames to the San Francisco Giants in free agency.
Meanwhile, the New York Mets, New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers had their first selection drop 10 spots due to exceeding the second luxury tax threshold during the 2024 season.
The remaining non-playoff teams in the lottery that didn’t land in the top six will pick in the first round based on reverse order of their record from the 2024 season.
The Los Angeles Dodgers pick last in the first round of the upcoming MLB Draft.
2025 MLB Draft first round order
No. 1: Washington Nationals
No. 2: Los Angeles Angels
No. 3: Seattle Mariners
No. 4: Colorado Rockies
No. 5: St. Louis Cardinals
No. 6: Pittsburgh Pirates
No. 7: Miami Marlins
No. 8: Toronto Blue Jays
No. 9: Cincinnati Reds
No. 10: Chicago White Sox
No. 11: Athletics
No. 12: Texas Rangers
No. 13: San Francisco Giants
No. 14: Tampa Bay Rays
No. 15: Boston Red Sox
No. 16: Minnesota Twins
No. 17: Chicago Cubs
No. 18: Arizona Diamondbacks
No. 19: Baltimore Orioles
No. 20: Milwaukee Brewers
No. 21: Houston Astros
No. 22: Atlanta Braves
No. 23: Kansas City Royals
No. 24: Detroit Tigers
No. 25: San Diego Padres
No. 26: Philadelphia Phillies
No. 27: Cleveland Guardians
No. 28: Kansas City Royals
No. 29: Milwaukee Brewers
No. 30: Milwaukee Brewers
No. 31: Detroit Tigers
No. 32: Seattle Mariners
No. 33: Minnesota Twins
No. 34: Tampa Bay Rays
No. 35: Cincinnati Reds
No. 36: Athletics
No. 37: Miami Marlins
No. 38: New York Mets
No. 39: New York Yankees
No. 40: Los Angeles Dodgers
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