PHILADELPHIA — The Chicago White Sox are done playing for first.
In the standings? Of course not.
Led by third baseman Miguel Vargas, the White Sox have emerged as one of the top surprises in Major League Baseball this year and are in American League Central Division contention after enduring three straight 100-loss seasons.
In the MLB draft? The White Sox have the No. 1 overall pick when the draft starts Saturday afternoon, part of the weekend festivities setting up Tuesday night’s MLB All-Star Game at Philadelphia’s’s Citizens Bank Park.
After losing 102 games last season and winning the draft lottery, the White Sox will try to select a future star who can help them win their first World Series title since 2005 — if they don’t get done even before he makes his way to Chicago.
There are no clear-cut No. 1 picks in this year’s draft like current Philadelphia Phillies slugger Bryce Harper — a Legend Pick among this year’s National League All-Stars — was in 2010.
The White Sox will likely pick one from the following three players: UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky, Texas high school shortstop Grady Emerson and Georgia Tech catcher Vahn Lackey.
MLB said Friday no amateur players are scheduled to attend the draft, which is the same as last year.
Cholowsky is a 6-foot-2, 202-pound right-handed hitter who had a 1.088 on-base plus slugging percentage with 21 home runs and 60 RBIs as a junior this past season, when he helped the Bruins earn the national No. 1 seed for the NCAA Division I tournament and was a finalist for the Golden Spikes Award given annually to the nation’s top amateur baseball player.
Emerson (6-3, 185) bats left, throws right and is widely considered the best all-around prospect in the draft pool despite being just 18.
Lackey, like Cholowsky (6-2, 215) is 21 years old. However, he didn’t receive any Division I offers until his senior year of high school and has since blossomed into one of the top catching prospects this year, though he also showed some versatility by also playing third base.
The White Sox are in win-now mode after years of rebuilding and could lean toward a college player such as Cholowsky, a proven prospect with plenty of seasoning at a major college program and someone who could help Chicago faster, maybe even this season.
That won’t be the case for any of the pitchers they draft.
“Most of the guys we take, even if they played in college versus a high school pick, they haven’t thrown competitively in a while,” said Paul Janish, the director of player development for the White Sox. “You have the draft in July, the minor league season is over in early September, there’s not a huge window. You take all those things in consideration, really the motive is health. We’re going to get you as ready as you can be for next spring training to have a good first full pro season.”
With the draft taking place in Philadelphia, there’s an interesting connection between a past star and a player who could hear his name called early in Saturday’s proceedings.
Jim Thome helped changed the perception of the Phillies from long-time losers to championship contenders when he left the AL’s Cleveland Indians and signed a six-year, $85 million with the NL club in the City of Brotherly Love ahead of the 2003 season. Thome hit 47 homers in his first season, his 400th career homer the next in Citizens Bank Park’s first season, and now can enjoy another milestone in the city: His 18-year-old son, Landon, is a likely first-round pick.
Landon, who was an infielder for Nazareth Academy in Illinois and has committed to Florida State, is ranked among the top 50 prospects.
“All the hard work, which at the end of the day, they do it all, as a dad, you sit back, you watch the journey,” the elder Thome told MLB Network.
There are more familiar names that could be called during the draft.
Rutgers outfielder Peyton Bonds is MLB career home runs leader Barry Bonds’ nephew. University of Houston first baseman Carsten Sabathia III is the son of National Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher CC Sabathia. Gulliver Prep (Florida) shortstop Jacob Lombard is considered one of the top five available prospects and is the son of Detroit Tigers bench coach and former major leaguer George Lombard.
After the White Sox, the Tampa Bay Rays pick second, while the Minnesota Twins are third, the San Francisco Giants fourth and the Pittsburgh Pirates fifth. The Kansas City Royals, Baltimore Orioles, Athletics, Atlanta Braves and Colorado Rockies round out the top 10.