Here’s who White Sox could take with No. 1 pick in MLB Draft

The Chicago White Sox already flashed their basketball ties with Bulls-inspired uniforms. And after winning the draft lottery, they’re alone on a breakaway and gearing up for a slam dunk. 

The White Sox secured the first overall pick in the 2026 MLB Draft on Tuesday night, reserving first dibs to select consensus big board headliner Roch Cholowsky, a 20-year-old shortstop out of UCLA. 

Listed at the top of MLB’s prospect rankings for 2026, Cholowsky is lauded in his scouting report as perhaps “the best all-around college shortstop prospect since Troy Tulowitzki.”

The 6-foot-2, right-handed infielder is fresh off a scorching sophomore campaign in which he hit .353 with a 1.190 OPS, 23 homers, and 74 RBIs for the Bruins. He was also named Baseball America’s 2025 College Baseball Player of the Year.

The son of a former minor leaguer and longtime scout, Cholowsky garnered early draft interest as a two-sport athlete at Hamilton High School in Chandler, Arizona — the same program that produced Cody Bellinger.

“A leader who was a high school quarterback, he serves as the head of his infield in the same manner,” his scouting report reads. “His tools and makeup make him look like the kind of player who could be big league ready in a hurry.”