The 2020 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft took place on June 10 and 11, 2020. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB) teams. The draft order was set based on the reverse order of the

2019 MLB season The 2019 Major League Baseball season began on March 20, while the regular season ended on September 29. It was the 150th anniversary of professional baseball, dating back to the 1869 foundation of the Cincinnati Red Stockings. The postseason beg ...

standings. In addition, compensation picks were distributed for players who did not sign from the

2019 MLB draft The 2019 Major League Baseball (MLB) First-Year Player Draft was held from June 3 to 5, 2019. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to MLB teams. The draft order was set based on the reverse order of the 2018 MLB season standings. In additi ...

and for teams who lost qualifying

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

s. On March 26, 2020, MLB and the

MLBPA The Major League Baseball Players Association (or MLBPA) is the collective bargaining, union representing all current Major League Baseball players. All players, Manager (baseball), managers, Coach (baseball), coaches, and athletic trainers who ...

reached a deal that included the option to shorten the draft to five rounds, and also shorten the 2021 draft to 20 rounds due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. In a plan to allow teams to sign an unlimited number of undrafted players for $20,000 each, MLB ultimately opted to shorten the 2020 draft to five rounds. The draft was originally planned to be hosted live for the first time in

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...

, to accompany the since-cancelled 2020 College World Series. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the draft was instead held remotely from

MLB Network The MLB Network is an American television sports channel dedicated to baseball. It is primarily owned by Major League Baseball, with Warner Bros. Discovery through its sports unit, Comcast's NBC Sports Group, Charter Communications, and Cox C ...

's studios in Secaucus, New Jersey. With sponsorship from

T-Mobile T-Mobile is the brand name used by some of the mobile communications subsidiaries of the German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG in the Czech Republic ( T-Mobile Czech Republic), Poland ( T-Mobile Polska), the United States (T-Mobil ...

, the event was officially the 2020 MLB Draft Presented by T-Mobile, with

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

providing live coverage for the first time since

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, alongside MLB Network. The Detroit Tigers, who had the worst record of the

, selected

Spencer Torkelson Spencer Enochs Torkelson (born August 26, 1999) is an American baseball first baseman and third baseman for the Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball (MLB). Torkelson was selected first overall by the Tigers in the 2020 Major League Baseball d ...

with the first overall pick in the draft. As punishment for their role in the sign stealing scandal, the Houston Astros forfeited their first- and second-round picks in the draft. The

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eigh ...

also forfeited their second-round pick in the draft as punishment for their own sign-stealing violations. Among the selected players, there were 41 who had played for the

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and 2 who had played for the

Canada national baseball team The Canada national baseball team represents Canada in international baseball. They are overseen by Baseball Canada, the governing body of baseball in Canada. Their manager is Ernie Whitt, a former Major League Baseball catcher for the Toront ...

. On September 18, 2020, the Chicago White Sox promoted

Garrett Crochet Garrett Nolan Crochet (born June 21, 1999) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Chicago White Sox of Major League Baseball (MLB). The White Sox selected Crochet with the 11th overall selection of the 2020 MLB draft out of the Uni ...

to the major leagues, becoming the first MLB player in six years to reach the big leagues in the same year in which he was drafted.

Draft selections

First round

Competitive Balance Round A

Second round

Competitive Balance Round B

Compensatory round

Third round

Fourth round

Fifth round

Summary

Selections by school and conference or state/province

Selections by position

Schools with multiple draft selections

Notes

;Compensation picks ;Trades

References

{{2020 MLB Draft Major League Baseball draft

Draft Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vesse ...

Major League Baseball draft The first-year player draft is the primary mechanism of Major League Baseball (MLB) for assigning amateur baseball players from high schools, colleges, and other amateur baseball clubs to its teams. The draft order is determined based on a lo ...

MLB draft The first-year player draft is the primary mechanism of Major League Baseball (MLB) for assigning amateur baseball players from high schools, colleges, and other amateur baseball clubs to its teams. The draft order is determined based on a lo ...