The weird MLB Draft rule that's making this awful SF Giants season even worse

The Giants are far below .500 early in the season and appear unlikely to recover. Some fans consider tanking to improve draft position. MLB uses a draft lottery for the top six picks, selected by pingpong-ball draws among teams that miss the postseason. Collective bargaining rules limit how often teams can win lottery picks to discourage repeated tanking. Revenue-sharing teams cannot receive lottery picks in three consecutive seasons, while large-market teams that do not receive revenue sharing cannot win in back-to-back seasons. This makes the Giants ineligible for lottery picks regardless of record, capping their first-round selection at 10th. In the 2026 draft, ineligible teams increased the odds for eligible teams, including the Giants.

"The last collective bargaining agreement in 2022 brought a draft lottery to MLB, with the top six choices selected by a draw of pingpong balls each year - the most picks up for grabs in a lottery of any of the major U.S. leagues. All 18 teams that miss the postseason would, in theory, have a chance to get any of the top six picks and the extra money that comes with those picks in the draft's slot value system."

"But in an effort to discourage teams from tanking for multiple seasons in a row, there are limits on how often a team can win a lottery pick. And within those rules, there's a split between the big-money teams and the ones from smaller markets. Teams who receive revenue-sharing payments from MLB are not allowed to receive a lottery pick in three seasons in a row. Teams that don't get those payments - large market teams like the Dodgers, Yankees, Mets, Red Sox and, yes, the Giants - can't land in the lottery in back-to-back seasons."

"Those teams are deemed ineligible for the lottery, no matter how bad their records are in the season; the highest their first-round pick will be is 10th. For the 2026 draft, three teams were ineligible for the lottery, most prominently the 119-loss Rockies. That ended up directly benefiting the Giants when their number came up for the No. 4 pick in the"

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