SAN DIEGO -- Despite finishing with MLB’s second-worst record in 2022, and having among the best odds to draft first in baseball’s new lottery system… the Oakland Athletics were unlucky Tuesday night, receiving the No. 6 pick in the 2023 MLB Draft.
“It was a little anticlimactic,” General Manager David Forst said of the reaction inside the team’s working hotel suite. “Mostly just quiet. And somewhere my scouting director threw his remote.”
Frustration that won’t immediately cost the A's, but certainly is not what they were hoping for over the next few seasons.
With our All Access Daily newsletter, stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Bay Area and California sports teams!
SIGN UP HERE “It's not the NBA or NFL, you’re not picking guys who are ready,” Forst said. “It's sort of a balance between ceiling and what you know.”
Most calculations -- which the A’s had run through dozens of times -- had Oakland receiving either the third or fourth picks on average. Sixth is a clear disappointment, and quoting the obvious, the odds of that happening “weren’t good”.
“The A’s have picked higher than that before, I have not in my time,” Forst said.
Oakland historically has drafted nineteen times within the first ten positions, and does have experience selecting in the top ten in drafts of years past, including the ninth overall selection in 2018.
Athletics
Find the latest Athletics news, highlights, analysis and more with NBC Sports Bay Area and California.
Does it mean the A's will have to scout a larger group of prospects?
“If I said don’t draft quarterbacks, is that too predictable?” Forst jokingly said about selecting Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray almost five years ago.
“If anything we’ve learned how important It is to hit on that pick. You see the impact of that entire farm system of not having a first-round pick that moves as you projected.”
RELATED: Petco Park's success an easy A's blueprint for Howard Terminal
The Pittsburgh Pirates will draft first in 2023.