The 2026 MLB draft gets rolling in Philadelphia this weekend, and the White Sox are set up to make plenty of noise over two days of coverage.
The club’s first five picks will get individual treatment this year at Nos. 1, 34, 44, 77 and 105, while the rest of the draft will be handled through a constantly updated Day 2 tracker. South Side Sox is also sending Melissa Sage-Bollenbach to Philadelphia, which should bring extra details, quotes, video and other coverage from the grounds across the site’s social channels.
For fans trying to follow along live, the draft begins Saturday, July 11, with Round 1 through Round 4 spread across the afternoon. MLB’s first-day coverage starts with a preview show from noon to 12:30 p.m.
CT on NBC and Peacock, followed by the lottery picks from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. CT.
Picks 11 through 40 run from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. CT on MLB Network, MLB.com, MLB.TV and MLB+, and picks 41 through 135 follow from 3:30 to 6:45 p.m.
CT on MLB.com, MLB.TV and MLB+.
Day 2 is Sunday, July 12, when Rounds 5 through 20 run from 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. CT on MLB.com, MLB.TV and MLB+.
This year’s draft is part of MLB All-Star Week in Philadelphia, and the first day comes with the full production treatment: interviews with newly drafted players, highlight packages, live analysis, team draft-room footage and front-office interviews. Sunday is a different animal. It covers every pick, but with hundreds of selections flying by, the broadcast turns into fast-paced ticker-style reporting.
The White Sox also enter the draft with the largest pool in baseball after trading Jacob Gonzalez to the Pirates: $20,489,500.
That number matters because the first 10 rounds carry assigned slot values, and those values are what build a team’s bonus pool. Clubs can move money around within the draft, spending more or less on different picks all the way through Round 20.
Teams are allowed to go up to 5% over their pool, but anything beyond that gets hit with a 75% tax. If the White Sox signed all 21 of their draft choices for $21 million, they would owe a 75% tax on the extra $510,500.
Going more than 5% over is considered “cheating” and brings stiffer penalties, including future draft-pick losses; no team has ever done it.
Rounds 11 through 20 come with $150,000 slot values, but that money does not count against the bonus pool unless a player gets more than $150,000. In that case, the overage comes out of the pool.
So if the White Sox spent $1.5 million to sign their Round 11 through Round 20 players, they would still have the full $20,489,500 available for their Round 1 through Round 10 picks. If that total climbed to $3 million, their pool for the top 10 rounds would drop to $18,989,500.
That’s why teams often save money late by signing a few players for as little as $10,000 when there aren’t many other options. The White Sox are very likely to do the same rather than eat into the more valuable bonus-pool dollars.
The club’s picks in Rounds 11 through 20 are set as follows: 11th Round, No. 315; 12th Round, No. 345; 13th Round, No. 375; 14th Round, No. 405; 15th Round, No. 435; 16th Round, No. 465; 17th Round, No. 495; 18th Round, No. 525; 19th Round, No. 555; and 20th Round, No. 585.
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Chicago also brought in Triple-A left-hander Jaden Woods, giving the deal a little more than just draft capital. The Pirates, meanwhile, got players they expect to help their major league roster quickly, which is the kind of return that usually makes a trade feel balanced in the moment, even if the long-term payoff is still very much to be determined. [Read more 🡒]