The unique rules surrounding MLB's new draft lottery made for two enormous losers at the 2024 version of the event: the Oakland Athletics and Washington Nationals.
The rule at issue is an anti-tanking provision the league introduced to prevent teams from tanking for multiple seasons in order to assemble top draft picks, a strategy teams like the Houston Astros, Chicago Cubs and Baltimore Orioles have employed over the last several years.
When an MLB team "wins" a pick in the lottery (i.e. gets a pick in the top 6) in back-to-back drafts, it becomes ineligible for a pick earlier than No.