2023 Amateur Draft

The 2023 First Year Player Draft was the fifty-ninth Major League Baseball Amateur Draft. It was held on July 9, 2023, at Lumen Field in Seattle, WA as part of the 2023 All-Star Game festivities. The venue normally serves as the home field of the NFL's Seattle Seahawks and Major League Soccer's Seattle Sounders.

For the first time, the first overall pick did not go automatically to the team with the worst overall record the previous season, but was awarded in a lottery held at the winter meetings on December 6, 2022; all teams that missed the 2022 Postseason were eligible for the lottery, with the odds being proportional to each team's lack of on-field success (i.e. the Washington Nationals, Oakland Athletics and Pittsburgh Pirates, who all lost 100 or more games in 2022, had identical 16.5% odds of winning the top pick, all the way down to the Milwaukee Brewers, who missed the postseason by one game, at 0.2%). Only the top six picks were subject to the lottery, with the non-winning teams then falling in the order of their finish in 2022 to claim picks 7 to 18. This lottery was created as part of the Collective Bargaining Agreement arrived at following the 2021-2022 lockout.

The Pirates were the winners of that inaugural lottery, giving them the top pick for the second time in three drafts, having also done so in the 2021 Amateur Draft; the Nationals were awarded the second pick, and the Detroit Tigers improved from sixth to third thanks to the lottery, while the Athletics fell to sixth. Both the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers exceeded the initial competitive-balance tax threshold of $230 million by more than $40 million, so their first selections dropped by 10 spots to fall outside the first round proper.

Initial evaluations of the players available for this draft noted that there was a stronger than usual college class, and that it was a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic, that had reduced the 2020 Amateur Draft to just five rounds and significantly capped bonuses available to other players. Therefore, many high school players who would have turned pro in a normal year decided to go on to college, and were now eligible to be drafted. Thus the two top-rated prospects that spring were college players, both from Louisiana State University, OF Dylan Crews and RhP Paul Skenes, raising the possibility that the top two picks could come from the same school - something unprecedented. The main obstacle to that happening was there were three other players who would be considered top overall pick material most years competing with them for those two slots: college OF Wyatt Langford and high schoolers Walker Jenkins and Max Clark, both also OFs. Skenes and Crews did in fact become the first teammates to be selected with the top two picks, going to Pittsburgh and Washington, respectively.

Draft Order

First Round

Pick	Team	Player	Position	School (Type)	Hometown	Notes
1	Pittsburgh Pirates	Paul Skenes	P	Louisiana State University (Col.)	Lake Forest, CA
2	Washington Nationals	Dylan Crews	OF	Louisiana State University (Col.)	Longwood, FL
3	Detroit Tigers	Max Clark	OF	Franklin Community High School (H.S.)	Franklin, IN
4	Texas Rangers	Wyatt Langford	OF	University of Florida (Col.)	Trenton, FL
5	Minnesota Twins	Walker Jenkins	OF	South Brunswick High School (H.S.)	Oak Island, NC
6	Oakland Athletics	Jacob Wilson	SS	Grand Canyon University (Col.)	Thousand Oaks, CA
7	Cincinnati Reds	Rhett Lowder	P	Wake Forest University (Col.)	Albemarle, NC
8	Kansas City Royals	Blake Mitchell	C	Sinton High School (H.S.)	Sinton, TX
9	Colorado Rockies	Chase Dollander	P	University of Tennessee (Col.)	Evans, GA
10	Miami Marlins	Noble Meyer	P	Jesuit High School (H.S.)	West Linn, OR
11	Los Angeles Angels	Nolan Schanuel	1B	Florida Atlantic University (Col.)	Boynton Beach, FL
12	Arizona Diamondbacks	Tommy Troy	IF	Stanford University (Col.)	Los Gatos, CA
13	Chicago Cubs	Matt Shaw	SS	University of Maryland (Col.)	Brimfield, MA
14	Boston Red Sox	Kyle Teel	C	University of Virginia (Col.)	Mahwah, NJ
15	Chicago White Sox	Jacob Gonzalez	SS	University of Mississippi (Col.)	Glendora, CA
16	San Francisco Giants	Bryce Eldridge	1B/OF/P	James Madison High School (H.S.)	Vienna, VA
17	Baltimore Orioles	Enrique Bradfield Jr.	OF	Vanderbilt University (Col.)	Hialeah, FL
18	Milwaukee Brewers	Brock Wilken	3B	Wake Forest University (Col.)	Valrico, FL
19	Tampa Bay Rays	Brayden Taylor	3B	Texas Christian University (Col.)	West Jordan, UT
20	Toronto Blue Jays	Arjun Nimmala	SS	Strawberry Crest High School (H.S.)	Valrico, FL
21	St. Louis Cardinals	Chase Davis	OF	University of Arizona (Col.)	Elk Grove, CA
22	Seattle Mariners	Colt Emerson	SS	John Glenn High School (H.S.)	Cambridge, OH
23	Cleveland Guardians	Raffaele Velazquez	C	Huntington Beach High School (H.S.)	Garden Grove, CA
24	Atlanta Braves	Hurston Waldrep	P	University of Florida (Col.)	Thomasville, GA
25	San Diego Padres	Dillon Head	OF	Homewood-Flossmoor High School (H.S.)	Glenwood, IL
26	New York Yankees	George Lombard Jr.	SS	Gulliver Preparatory School (H.S.)	Pinecrest, FL
27	Philadelphia Phillies	Aidan Miller	3B	J. W. Mitchell High School (H.S.)	Trinity, FL
28	Houston Astros	Brice Matthews	SS	University of Nebraska (Col.)	Humble, TX

Prospect Promotion Incentive Picks

Pick	Team	Player	Position	School (Type)	Hometown	Notes
29	Seattle Mariners	Jonny Farmelo	OF	Westfield High School (H.S.)	Centreville, VA	Received for Julio Rodríguez winning Rookie of the Year.

If a player who was rated as a preseason Top 100 prospect by MLB Pipeline, Baseball America, and/or ESPN (at least two of the three) and was on his team's Opening Day roster goes on to win the Rookie of the Year Award, the club is awarded a Prospect Promotion Incentive pick after the first round.

Competitive Balance Round A

Pick	Team	Player	Position	School (Type)	Hometown	Notes
30	Seattle Mariners	Tai Peete	SS	Trinity Christian School (H.S.)	Tyrone, GA
31	Tampa Bay Rays	Adrian Santana	SS	Doral Academy Preparatory School (H.S.)	Miami, FL
32*	New York Mets	Colin Houck	SS	Parkview High School (H.S.)	Lilburn, GA
33	Milwaukee Brewers	Josh Knoth	P	Patchogue-Medford High School (H.S.)	Medford, NY
34	Minnesota Twins	Charlee Soto	P	Reborn Christian Academy (H.S.)	Kissimmee, FL
35	Miami Marlins	Thomas White	P	Phillips Academy (H.S.)	Rowley, MA
36*	Los Angeles Dodgers	Kendall George	OF	Atascocita High School (H.S.)	Humble, TX
37	Detroit Tigers	Kevin McGonigle	SS	Monsignor Bonner High School (H.S.)	Aldan, PA
38	Cincinnati Reds	Ty Floyd	P	Louisiana State University (Col.)	Rockmart, GA
39	Oakland Athletics	Myles Naylor	3B	St. Joan of Arc Catholic Secondary School (H.S.)	Mississauga, ON

* The Mets’ and Dodgers' first picks dropped 10 spots because they exceeded the competitive balance tax threshold by more than $40 million.

Notes

As noted above, the top two picks, Paul Skenes and Dylan Crews, both came out of Louisiana State University - something that was completely unprecedented.

No. 28 pick Brice Matthews and no. 36 pick Kendall George both went to Atascocita High School, although Matthews was drafted out of college.

All first-round picks came to an agreement on a contract with the team that selected them by the July 25 deadline. In fact, only one player taken in the top ten rounds failed to sign - #305 pick Caden Kendle, taken by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 10th round!

The first player from the draft to make it to the majors was #11 pick Nolan Schanuel, on August 18, 2023, barely a month after being drafted by the Los Angeles Angels. The Angels had been very aggressive in getting their draft picks to the Show in recent years, as earlier that season they had promoted the first player to reach the majors from the 2022 Amateur Draft in Zach Neto, as well as the next two such players, and a year before had promoted the first alumnus from the 2021 Amateur Draft to the majors in Chase Silseth.

Further Reading

• Jim Callis: "Here's a first look at 2023's top Draft prospects", mlb.com, December 13, 2022. [1]
• Jim Callis: "Mock draft: Predicting all 30 teams’ first pick", mlb.com, June 1, 2023. [2]
• Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo: "Here's how Draft experts think the first 10 picks should go", mlb.com, April 25, 2023. [3]
• Sam Dykstra, Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo: "Our favorite Draft picks -- one for each team", mlb.com, July 13, 2023. [4]
• Jonathan Mayo: "Draft lottery to air on Network Dec. 6. Here's each team's odds", mlb.com, November 7, 2022. [5]
• Jonathan Mayo: "3 teams move into top 5 in inaugural Draft Lottery", mlb.com, December 6, 2022. [6]
• Jonathan Mayo: "Skenes, Crews become first teammates to go 1-2", mlb.com, July 9, 2023. [7]
• Jonathan Mayo: "Draft Day 1: Pick-by-pick rundown, analysis", mlb.com, July 10, 2023. [8]