On Tuesday at the MLB Winter Meetings, the league will be conducting the first-ever Major League Baseball Draft Lottery. The Chicago Cubs will be one of the teams participating in it.
This is a way for the league to get rid of tanking. The first six picks in the draft are going to be decided via this weighted lottery.
They made it where the three worst teams in the league all have the same odds of winning the first overall pick so the team that finishes dead last can end up with the seventh overall pick instead of just being handed the first one.
The rest of the picks are going to be in reverse order of the standings amongst teams that didn’t win a lottery spot. In rounds 2-20, every pick will just be the standings in reverse order.
The Chicago Cubs are involved with the Major League Baseball Draft Lottery.
The Cubs are being given a 1.1 percent chance of winning the lottery. Those aren’t great odds but getting one of the top six picks, in general, would be really nice for them as their rebuild continues.
Every team in the NL Central is participating in this event except for the St. Louis Cardinals who were the only division rival that made it to the postseason.
The Milwaukee Brewers were the first team out of the playoffs so they are dealing with a 0.2 percent chance to make it. Then you have the Cubs and their aforementioned 1.1 percent chance.
After that, the Cincinnati Reds have a 13.2 percent chance which is very high. The Pittsburgh Pirates are one of the three teams (Washington Nationals and Oakland A’s) that have a league-leading 16.5 percent chance to win it.
Between the Reds and Pirates, there is a good chance that the number one overall pick is coming to the division. You’d think that the division will be well-represented in the top six but you just never know how it is going to shake out.
Again, the Cubs don’t have the best chance but you just never know. There is a lot of luck involved in this stuff as we’ve seen in the NHL and NBA with lotteries. It is certainly going to be a fun event to watch. You can catch it on MLB Network at 7:30 locally.