The first four rounds of the Major League Baseball draft will begin Saturday, July 11, starting at 10:30 am Pacific Time. In a change of operations from previous years, the draft will continue with rounds 5 through 20 at a much faster pace on Sunday at 8:30 am.
Outfielder Zion Rose could be the first college player the Padres have taken in ten years. (Photo: University of Louisville Athletics)
The Padres will make their first selection at 21st overall, and get two additional picks in the top 100 – number 60 and 97 overall. They will pick two additional times before Saturday’s work wraps up, taking advantage of a compensation pick they received when Dylan Cease signed as a free agent with Toronto.
The Padres will have a bonus pool of $9.479 million to spend, the organization’s highest since 2022. In recent years, the club has lost both picks and pool money due to free-agent signings and penalties for exceeding luxury-tax thresholds.
The Padres under AJ Preller have a noted preference for ceiling (or upside) and for staying up the middle. They haven’t selected a college player with their first pick since right-hander Cal Quantrill in 2016. Since then, the organization has taken four left-handed pitchers, four position players, and righty Dylan Lesko with their top selection.
In 2024, they selected left-handed high school pitchers Kash Mayfield and Boston Bateman with their first two picks. Bateman was traded to Baltimore a year later. Last July, they selected Oregon prep lefty Kruz Schoolcraft when they picked 25th overall for the third straight year.
Bo Lowrance could be San Diego’s top pick in 2026. (Photo: MLB.com)
Not surprisingly, three of the four major publications that cover the draft predict San Diego selecting another high school player in their latest mock draft prognostications:
MLB Pipeline: LHP Carson Bolemon, Huntington Beach (CA) HS
The Athletic: 3B Bo Lowrance, Christ Church (Episcopal Greenville, SC) HS
ESPN: CF Zion Rose, University of Louisville
Baseball America: 3B Bo Lowrance
Lowrance is a 6-foot-5, 200-pound left-handed hitting infielder from South Carolina, by way of Salt Lake City. He is not expected to stay at shortstop, where he played in high school, and there is some thought he might outgrow even third base. Baseball America writes that he has an above-average arm and quick feet, and that he has a chance to stay there, but his bat is what will land him in the first round.
The other prep option, Boleman, is – surprise – a left-handed pitcher from Southern California with a prototypical 6-foot-4, 210-pound frame. His velocity was down this year, in the 89-93 range, after sitting in the mid-90s in 2025, and Keith Law of The Athletic notes that he already underwent an internal brace procedure three years ago. He already has two breaking pitches, with his curve the better of the two.
Finally, Kiley McDaniel of ESPN goes out on a limb and has San Diego taking 21-year-old outfielder Rose, a player he categorizes as having “a high school player level of projection/upside”. Rose is 6-foot-1 and 200 pounds and was a top-100 prospect as a catcher out of high school, but went undrafted because of his commitment to the University of Louisville. With the Cardinals, he has mainly been in left field, although he did get in four games as a catcher. McDaniel also has the Padres taking Canadian high school shortstop Elliot Lascelles with their second-round pick. Lascelles is committed to Yale and, of course, like nearly all Canadian position players, hits left-handed.
Post-draft, we will have interviews with MLB Pipeline’s Jim Callis, Baseball America, and the Padres about their 2026 selections.
Gio Rojas may be the top lefty in the draft. (Photo: MLB Pipeline)
Update: Since we published last night, both Baseball America and MLB Pipeline have released their “final” mock drafts. Carlos Collazo sticks with his prediction of Lowrance but, as an alternative, throws in a great line about other players the Padres may be on with: “every high school player other teams are scared to take.” MLB Pipeline’s last mock featured only Jonathan Mayo; this time, Jim Callis also weighs in with his pick: Florida prep Gio Rojas, whom he considers the draft’s best left-hander.