The Chicago White Sox selected UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky on Saturday with the first pick of the MLB amateur draft.
A 6-foot-2 right-handed hitter, Cholowsky was a Golden Spikes finalist at UCLA and had a 1.088 OPS with 21 homers and 60 RBIs in his junior season.
Cholowsky was a top prospect, who could have been selected high in the 2025 MLB amateur draft. Instead, he returned for a third season at UCLA, where he helped the Bruins become the first college baseball team to ever have an end-to-end season as the Associated Press No. 1 ranked team. The Bruins finished the regular season 48-6 overall (28-2 in the Big Ten), won the Big Ten tournament, and earned the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.
That success, however, didn’t translate to the postseason as the Bruins couldn’t advance out of the Los Angeles Regional, falling twice to Saint Mary’s.
Still, Cholowsky’s college career is remembered for his accolades on the field, and the teammate he was off the diamond, captaining a UCLA team that largely stuck together in a college baseball era dominated by the transfer portal.
Tampa Bay picks second and Minnesota is third. San Francisco is fourth and Pittsburgh fifth. Kansas City, Baltimore, the Athletics, Atlanta and Colorado round out the top 10.
The White Sox had the top selection for the first time since taking Harold Baines in 1977.
The White Sox got the No. 1 pick after they lost 102 games last season and won the draft lottery and have pegged Cholowsky as a future star that can help them win their first World Series title since 2005.