The Athletic has live coverage of the 2026 MLB Draft.On Saturday, the Chicago White Sox selected UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky with the first pick in the 2026 MLB Draft.Cholowsky, 21, hit .320/.452/.636 with 21 home runs and 60 RBIs for the Bruins this season, helping them to a 52-8 record and an appearance in the NCAA Regionals. He becomes the first UCLA product to go No. 1 since the Pittsburgh Pirates selected Gerrit Cole in 2010. He’s also the first college shortstop since Dansby Swanson (Arizona Diamondbacks, 2015) to be the first pick. He was the back-to-back Big Ten player of the year and earned the Bob Wallace award in 2025, which is given to the best collegiate shortstop.The right-handed hitter was viewed by many evaluators as the consensus No. 1 prospect for a majority of this draft year, even with the recent noise of Grady Emerson and Vahn Lackey making a strong case for the spot. His father, Dan Cholowsky, was selected in the first round of the 1991 MLB Draft by the St. Louis Cardinals and went on to have an eight-year professional career before becoming an area scout.
Cholowsky attended Hamilton High School in Chandler, Ariz., which has produced plenty of MLB players, most notably Yankees outfielder Cody Bellinger. To go with his baseball pedigree, Cholowsky was ranked as a three-star quarterback by 247 Sports coming out of high school, holding offers from Notre Dame and New Mexico State.Standing at 6-foot-2, 202 pounds, Cholowsky does just about everything an evaluator dreams of: He has posted 90th percentile exit velocities at 106.5 mph and has strong bat-to-ball skills with a good recognition of the zone and the ability to pull the ball in the air. He has quick feet and can get down on the baseball and has a quick release with a strong arm.“Barring injury, I don’t see a world where he’s not at least an everyday MLB shortstop who hits 15-20 homers — his ceiling is 25-30 homers with a high OBP — and he’ll play plus defense in any scenario,” wrote The Athletic’s lead draft analyst Keith Law.Like many top college picks, Cholowsky is projected by evaluators to be a quick riser through the system. He’s widely considered the most major-league ready player in this year’s draft class, and should be one of the top prospects in all of baseball the moment he plays his first professional games.The White Sox, who are coming off three consecutive 100-plus loss seasons, have begun to turn the corner, as they are currently tied for first place in the American League Central. Much of that improvement has to do with a wave of prospects reaching their big-league team, including Braden Montgomery, Colson Montgomery, Sam Antonacci and Grant Taylor.
