The NBA Draft Lottery is rigged! Months after surrendering their perennial MVP candidate, Luka Doncic, in order to help LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers return to relevance (spoiler alert: they didn't), the Dallas Mavericks were rewarded by securing the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. Dallas will undoubtedly select Duke star Cooper Flagg with the first pick later this summer, and the Mavs will have a new star build around. If you still believe the NBA Draft Lottery isn't fixed, I've got some oceanfront property in Arizona to sell you.
Major League Baseball will be heading into year three of their own draft lottery this summer. The Pittsburgh Pirates won the first-ever lottery in 2023 and selected Paul Skenes. Last year, the Cleveland Guardians were awarded the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft and chose infielder Travis Bazzana. This past December, the 2025 Draft Lottery was held during the Winter Meetings, and the Washington Nationals — who had a 10.2% chance to land the first-overall pick — came away as the big winners.
You needn't look any further than the first three MLB Draft Lottery results to understand that these are far from rigged. If MLB was looking to elevate (or reward) any of their 30 organizations with the first pick in the draft, they wouldn't have chosen the Pirates, Guardians or Nats. But that begs the question: If Rob Manfred did decide to channel his inner Adam Silver, who would he tip the scales for?
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The NBA Draft Lottery is obvious rigged, but what would a fixed MLB Draft Lottery look like?
Chicago White Sox
The goal of rigging such an event would be to benefit the sport as a whole. Perhaps, in an effort to reinvigorate a once robust fanbase, MLB might look to fix the lottery in order to reignite one of the sport's biggest markets. While most fans think of the Cubs when they think of Chicago, the White Sox have an equally passionate — albeit apathetic — fanbase. Alas, the South Siders haven't been relevant in about two decades.
But what better way to reengage a once-proud franchise than by handing them the keys to select a generational talent with the first overall pick? The White Sox have been in existence for over 120 years but have just three World Series titles to show for it. Chicago has been scraping the bottom of the barrel for the past several seasons, and adding the No. 1 overall pick would help White Sox GM Chris Getz jumpstart the team's rebuild. It could also help usher in a new era of fans if/when the White Sox relocate to a new stadium in the South Loop.
Los Angeles Angels
Speaking of major markets, they don't come much bigger than L.A. While the Angels have always been seen as the red-headed stepchild of the Los Angeles baseball scene, Shohei Ohtani proved that fans in Orange County will come out in droves to support the Halos when they have a superstar in the lineup.
And just like the NBA did for the Mavs, Major League Baseball could toss Arte Moreno and the Halos a bone after losing their superstar to the Los Angeles Dodgers a little less than two years ago. The Angels have been known to spend money — though not always on the right player — and handing L.A. the first overall pick could give the Angels something special to build around in Anaheim.
St. Louis Cardinals
If you want the most logical MLB rig job, look no further than baseball's gold standard. Though St. Louis' rebuild is going better than expected, it's highly likely that the Cardinals will finish the 2025 season under .500 for the second time in three seasons. As every baseball fan knows, that's not the Cardinal Way.
As such, it would be so like MLB to give the Cardinals preferential treatment. Rather than rebuilding a franchise the old-fashioned way, the Cards would be allowed to skip the line and receive the No. 1 overall pick in what would now doubt be viewed as a win for the "best fans in baseball". Gag me!
Athletics
This one might surprise you, but there's a method to the madness. Yes, at the moment, the A's and their ownership are the equivalent of a bad movie nobody wants to see. In other words, they're "Jaws: The Revenge". But what better way to usher in a new stadium in Las Vegas than with the No. 1 overall pick from the MLB Draft?
The A's are still a few years away from their move to Sin City, but baseball prospects don't become stars overnight. It usually takes two, and sometimes three seasons before the top pick in the draft has cut his teeth in the Minors and is ready for his Major League debut. If there was one team in MLB who'd benefit the most from a rigged draft lottery, it's the Athletics.