Given that the White Sox held the the top draft pick, and their trade for the 34th-overall pick gave them an additional pick before the second round and the biggest draft pool, it'd be weird if the writers evaluating teams on their first four rounds of drafting couldn't find reasons for excitement about how the White Sox approached the first day of the MLB draft.
That said, raves are raves, be they from Carlos Collazo at Baseball America ...
From [Roch Cholowsky at No. 1], the White Sox drafted a pair of prep hitters who have the talent that would have warranted going in the 20s: local Illinois product Landon Thome with their newly acquired 34th overall pick, and then Mississippi second baseman Cole Prosek—who boasts one of the most lethal hit/power combos in the prep class.
There’s a real argument that the White Sox landed three first-round talents.
The cherry on top of an impressive Day 1? Chicago then nabbed Georgia righthander Joey Volchko in the third round and Oregon State righthander Eric Segura in the fourth. Volchko’s pure pitching upside is exciting no matter where he’s drafted, so landing him in the third round feels like a rock (Roch?) solid value. And Segura was a Statcast Standouts sleeper, which predicted he might end up going on the first day of the draft.
... or Keith Law at The Athletic:
The Chicago White Sox had a tremendous draft. They had the No. 1 pick, the second pick in every round afterward, added pick 34 in a trade Friday night, and they have imported a ton of talent already with Rounds 5-20 left to come Sunday.
They grabbed the consensus No. 1 prospect in UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky, two high-upside high school hitters in Landon Thome and Cole Prosek, and a project with upside in Georgia right-hander Joey Volchko. Their last pick, Oregon State right-hander Eric Segura, is a sinker/slider guy who could be a back-end starter if he can reduce his platoon split.
The White Sox will also pick second in the final 16 rounds, the first of which starts at 10:30 a.m. on MLB.com, with the 20th and final round expected to conclude around 6:30 p.m. Follow along and share your thoughts and findings here.
2026 MLB Draft Resources
- MLB.com draft tracker
- 2026 MLB draft bonus pools and slot values
- Baseball America Top 500 draft prospects
- MLB Pipeline Top 250
- ESPN Top 250
- Sox Machine Top 150
- Keith Law's Top 100
