Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
The MLB Draft Lottery was held at the Winter Meetings in Nashville on Tuesday with bad news for New York Mets fans as they didn’t get a pick in the Top 6 and thus drop 10 spots from their 2023 standings spot (9th) and will have the 19th pick in the 2024 amateur draft.
Per the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, teams that exceeded the competitive balance tax payroll threshold of $273 million for the 2023 season must have their first draft selection drop by 10 spots, provided their first selection is not in the top six.
If their first round pick is in the top six, then the team’s next draft pick, ostensibly in the second round, descends by ten spots.
The Mets, Yankees, and Padres were the three teams that exceeded that threshold in 2023.
The Cleveland Guardians got the first overall pick despite having just a 2% going into the lottery.
Following Cleveland, the lottery order two through six is: Cincinnati, Colorado, Oakland, Chicago (White Sox), and Kansas City.
The 2024 MLB First-Year Player Draft will take place during All-Star weekend in July, in Arlington, Texas, the location of this year’s All-Star game. A specific date for the draft has not been announced yet.
