ORLANDO, Fla. — As Randy Winn descended the stage following Tuesday’s MLB draft lottery, he was rapidly met by senior director of newbie scouting director Michael Holmes. Winn, technically, hadn’t achieved something, however a congratulations was nonetheless so as.
“He’s very excited about that if you saw his face and heard his voice,” mentioned Winn, the Giants’ vice chairman of participant improvement.
That pleasure was well-warranted after the Giants landed the fourth general choose within the 2026 MLB draft, leapfrogging a number of groups to land their first top-five choice since 2018.
“This is definitely a surprise to me,” Winn mentioned. “It’s a welcome surprise.”
This would be the sixth time for the reason that Giants moved to San Francisco that the Giants could have a top-five draft choose, the opposite picks being Buster Posey (2008, No. 5), Jason Grilli (1997, No. 4), Matt Willams (1986, No. 3), Will Clark (1985, No. 2) and Joey Bart (2018, No. 2).
San Francisco would’ve had the fifteenth general choose if the draft was ordered strictly by report (81-81), however the group had the Twelfth-best odds at touchdown the primary general choose at 1.01% since three groups had been ineligible for a lottery choose.
The draft lottery started with the Cincinnati Reds being given the No. 18 general choose; Winn knew that if the Giants’ title wasn’t referred to as by No. 15, their choose could be within the prime six.
As soon as the Kansas Metropolis Royals acquired the No. 6 choose and the Pittsburgh Pirates acquired the No. 5 choose, Winn allowed himself to start out desirous about the potential of getting the primary general choose. His consideration, although, began to float when textual content messages began flooding in.
“My phone was buzzing from former teammates of mine heckling me while I was up there,” Winn mentioned. “I could name a few. It was actually a few of my Tampa (Bay) teammates sending me text messages saying, ‘Don’t screw it up’ and some other very nice things. ‘You look terrible up there.’ Those sort of things. Who needs enemies when you have friends like that.”
The 2026 MLB draft is months away, nevertheless it’s potential that the Giants’ farm system can be brimming with center infielders by subsequent summer season. MLB Pipeline’s prime 4 newbie prospects for subsequent 12 months’s draft — UCLA’s Roch Cholowsky, Fort Price Christian’s Grady Emerson, Alabama’s Justin Lebron and Gulliver Prep’s Jacob Lombard — are shortstops.
The Giants signed shortstop Josuar Gonzalez, the highest place participant of the 2025 worldwide newbie free agent class, in January, then drafted second baseman Gavin Kilen out of Tennessee in July. After signing Gonzalez this 12 months, San Francisco is without doubt one of the favorites to signal shortstop Luis Hernandez, the highest place participant prospect of subsequent 12 months’s class, in January.
The Giants, after all, hope that they will keep away from the draft lottery after ending .500 or worse for a fourth straight season. But when one other alternative did come up, would Winn function the Giants’ consultant once more if the chance arose?
“I hope not,” Winn laughed. “I don’t want to wear out my magic — my one-year magic.”
Price noting
Matt Chisholm, the Big’s vice chairman of media relations, was named the recipient of the 2025 Robert O. Fishel Award for Public Relations Excellence. The award goes to the “active, non-uniformed representative of Major League Baseball whose ethics, character, dedication, service, professionalism and humanitarianism best represent the standards propounded by Robert O. Fishel.”
Moreover, Brad Grems and Gavin Cuddie, the Giants’ residence and street clubhouse managers, respectively, each received Clubhouse Supervisor of the 12 months Award. This marks the primary time that the house and street clubhouse awards had been received by managers from the identical group in the identical 12 months.
