The MLB Pro Winter Meetings will begin in-game on Monday, December 16 and end on Thursday, December 19.
The first MLB Pro draft lottery will take place during the Winter Meetings. Odds for the lottery are below:
| Rank | Team | Record | Balls |
| 1) | Washington Nationals | 55-107 | 165 |
| 2) | New York Yankees | 58-104 | 165 |
| 3) | Chicago Cubs | 61-101 | 165 |
| 4) | Cleveland Guardians | 68-94 | 133 |
| 5) | Texas Rangers | 69-93 | 100 |
| 6) | Detroit Tigers | 70-92 | 75 |
| 7) | Colorado Rockies | 70-92 | 55 |
| 8) | San Diego Padres | 71-91 | 39 |
| 9) | Sacramento Athletics | 73-89 | 27 |
| 10) | Los Angeles Dodgers | 73-89 | 18 |
| 11) | Chicago White Sox | 75-87 | 14 |
| 12) | Pittsburgh Pirates | 77-85 | 11 |
| 13) | Minnesota Twins | 78-84 | 9 |
| 14) | Baltimore Orioles | 80-82 | 7 |
| 15) | Milwauke Brewers | 81-81 | 6 |
| 16) | New York Mets | 85-77 | 5 |
| 17) | Atlanta Braves | 86-76 | 4 |
| 18) | Los Angeles Angels | 89-73 | 2 |
| Draft Position | Team | Result |
| 19) | Kansas City Royals | Wild Card – 87-75 |
| 20) | St. Louis Cardinals | Wild Card – 89-73 |
| 21) | Arizona Diamondbacks | Wild Card – 92-70 |
| 22) | Toronto Blue Jays | Wild Card – 93-69 |
| 23) | Miami Marlins | Division Series – 88-74 |
| 24) | Tampa Bay Rays | Division Series – 90-72 |
| 25) | Seattle Mariners | Division Series – 91-71 |
| 26) | San Francisco Giants | Division Series – 92-70 |
| 27) | Boston Red Sox | Championship Series – 93-69 |
| 28) | Cincinnati Reds | Championship Series – 93-69 |
| 29) | Houston Astros | AL Champion – 100-62 |
| 30) | Philadelphia Phillies | World Series Champion – 103-59 |
That 1-30 order is the order for rounds 2-20.
The draft lottery in-game is for the top 6 spots in the draft. The in-game lottery odds are correct by position, but not by team. When the lottery happens use the draft slots 1-18 above as what is being selected. By this I mean, OOTP in-game does strictly 1-18 worst record w/o taking into account playoff vs. non-playoff teams [IE: KC is in LAA’s spot at #18, that appears to be the only inaccuracy among lottery teams.]
RULE 5 DRAFT
In addition to draft lottery and free-agent negotiations, the Winter Meetings will once again be home to the MLB Pro Rule 5 Draft. The Rule 5 Draft is now scheduled for Thursday, December 19th at ~4:00 PM PT in Slack. You may submit a list with instructions if you will not be able to attend.
40-man rosters will lock with the sim Sunday, December 15th and the pool will be made available later that evening or the morning of the 16th.
Following the sim on the 15th, each team’s 40-man roster number will be tracked and recorded. If you have 39 at that point, even if you were to waive/DFA multiple players in the following days, you will only be able to select a maximum of 1 player in the Rule 5 draft.
If a player is waived during that week…
—-If they are claimed, the new team can add them to the 40-man roster (must have a spot for them).
—-If they go unclaimed, they REMAIN Rule 5 eligible AND will not come with the full-season roster requirements for the new team.
If a player is signed as a free-agent, they will be added to the 40-man roster during that week. The above rule stands true if you must waive a player to make room for the newly signed FA.
No trades will be processed from that Sunday until after the Rule 5 draft is completed.
Why with all of the above? To give those not able to attend (we have GM’s all over the globe) an accurate list of the R5 pool. This is to try and prevent guys being dumped the night of the draft when exports get imported.
To simplify who is and is not eligible for the draft, we will return to the following simplified rules:
- If a player is listed in-game as eligible and…
- Are at least 22 as of 12/31/24 — (anyone born before 1/1/2003)
- They were not recently signed as a FA and have yet to be added to the 40-man roster, this should be obvious for all to spot. Players who sign a big-league contract during the brief window are to be added to the 40-man roster.
Drafting a player will cost $100,000.
A team will earn $50,000 for each player lost in the draft.