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SF Giants have no incentive to tank the rest of this season thanks to MLB rule

Maybe in another year, but not this one.
ByNick San Miguel|
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San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey addresses the media during an introductory press conference at Oracle Park. Mandatory Credit: Robert Edwards-Imagn Images
San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey addresses the media during an introductory press conference at Oracle Park. Mandatory Credit: Robert Edwards-Imagn Images | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect

If you’re reading this, you already know the SF Giants are having a dreadful year. There’s a decent chance they will lose 100 games and in pretty much any other year you’d hear calls from fans for the team to intentionally tank to try to improve its draft position next year. Well, even if they wanted to they can’t do that.

Per MLB’s current CBA, large-market revenue-sharing teams like the Giants are prohibited from getting consecutive lottery picks. Since the Giants were the beneficiaries of the lottery last year and got the No. 4 overall pick, the earliest they can pick next year is 10th overall.

One might recall back in 2017 when the team had a similarly awful year and Pablo Sandoval hit a walk-off home run on the final game of the season which cost the Giants the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 MLB Draft. 

The Detroit Tigers ended up getting the No. 1 overall spot that year and went with right-handed pitcher Casey Mize, who has turned into an All-Star, while the Giants selected catcher Joey Bart and we all know how that turned out.

At least we won’t have a situation like that this year. The Giants are simply playing for pride at this point and it really doesn’t matter how many games they lose.

It’s a bit unfortunate though because when a team has such a bad season, at least you can usually look ahead and hope that the team will get a solid player in the draft which could help that season sting a little less.

Giants may actually benefit from MLB Draft lottery rules

Maybe this will actually end up helping the Giants, though. They won’t pick any earlier than 10th but that could mean they will be in the perfect spot to get Striker Pence, the nephew of Hunter Pence. He’s currently projected to go No. 19 overall so if he stays in that 10-20 range that could be the perfect spot for the Giants to get him.

He’s a fascinating prospect since he’s only 17 years old but he already throws triple-digits and is considered a two-way player at this point. 

We will see how it all shakes out, but the Giants don’t get any advantage by tanking this year so they might as well just play hard until the very end and try not to lose the most games in franchise history. 

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