The absolute biggest winners of the 2026 MLB Draft

The 2026 MLB Draft lacked early surprises, though Saturday afternoon’s first round nonetheless proved fascinating. 

Let’s take a quick look at some early draft winners. To be clear, we’re not issuing full grades, nor are we offering long-term projections. We’re simply evaluating picks based on context and teams’ current situations. 

Let’s start off with the top of the draft, albeit not in Chicago or Tampa Bay. 

Vahn Lackey fell to the Twins after all

There were no shenanigans atop the draft, with Roch Cholowsky and Grady Emerson going 1-2 to the White Sox and Rays as predicted. That paved the way for the Minnesota Twins to take their first-round catcher since Joe Mauer all the way back in 2001. 

As someone who watched plenty of Mauer growing up, I cannot tell you how much that hurt to write. 

With respect to Jason Castro, the Twins haven’t had a legitimate franchise backstop since Mauer permanently moved to first base later in his career. Lackey, who won the Johnny Bench Award as college baseball’s best catcher, better hope he can live up to the lofty expectations already on his shoulders. 

The Pirates and Derek Curiel are a fun pairing

Credit to the Pirates, who went with an SEC outfielder in Curiel rather than one of the top high school prospects. I interpreted this as the Pirates wanting to maximize whatever window they have with Paul Skenes rather than opting to pick Jacob Lombard or Eric Booth Jr. and hope that they’re ready by the summer of 2028. 

Curiel doesn’t provide a ton of power, but he provides above-average contact and defense. It’s entirely possible that they overdrafted Curiel at No. 5, but I’d rather potentially have a steady bat help during the Skenes era rather than wait on an above-average player to debut when Skenes is already in New York or Los Angeles.

Marlins fans might love Jacob Lombard

Peter Bendix might not look or sound like what we’d expect of a general manager, but he’s quickly building a playoff contender in Miami. The Marlins had a second-half surge last year and will go into the All-Star Break only three games out of first in the NL East. 

Landing Lombard at No. 14 feels like a steal. We spent much of the pre-draft process expecting the shortstop to go within the first 10 picks. Instead, the Gulliver Prep (Fla.) product gets to stay in South Florida after recording an incredible 1.471 OPS in his senior year. 

Major League Baseball did right by the players

Rather than nudge players to attend the draft, the league simply accepted the trend of players preferring to hold their own draft parties and watch with their families. We also avoided any of the “anonymous source” stories about Manfred or league executives being furious at the thought of not having players in Philadelphia. 

More to come on Manfred, but I wanted to give the league its flowers. I think Major League Baseball knows deep down that the draft will never be a marquee event, but it also needs to at least experiment where possible. 

That said, I’m not sure why anyone would attend the draft, but maybe they had terrific food vans and IPAs on tap. 

BONUS: Rob Manfred’s critics are taking a victory lap

Alright, no one is exactly a winner here, but Manfred had actually been boosting his stock among some baseball fans. Many of the recent rule changes, most notably the automated ball-strike challenge system, have been a universal success. 

However, Saturday’s draft coverage was an unquestioned disaster. NBC only aired the first 10 picks before MLB Network took over exclusive TV coverage. The networks promised a 1 p.m. ET start, yet we waited nearly 40 minutes for the No. 1 pick. 

Manfred mispronouncing Cholowsky’s name is objectively so absurd and embarrassing that it’s also hilarious. Look, I’ll personally butcher a name or two, but I’m also not the commissioner of anything beyond a fantasy football league. 

I’m interested to see the TV ratings, and I’m hoping MLB and NBC commit to a legitimate primetime event next year … assuming there is a draft next year, of course. 

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