# List of Chicago White Sox first-round draft picks

The Chicago White Sox are a Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise based in Chicago, Illinois. They play in the American League Central division. Since the institution of MLB's Rule 4 Draft, the White Sox have selected 66 players in the first round. Officially known as the "First-Year Player Draft", the Rule 4 Draft is MLB's primary mechanism for assigning amateur baseball players from high schools, colleges, and other amateur baseball clubs to its teams. The draft order is determined based on the previous season's standings, with the team possessing the worst record receiving the first pick. In addition, teams which lost free agents in the previous off-season may be awarded compensatory or supplementary picks.
Of the 66 players picked in the first round by the Chicago White Sox, 32 have been pitchers, the most of any position; 20 of them were right-handed, while 12 were left-handed. Twelve outfielders, eight catchers, five shortstops, five third basemen, and four first basemen were also taken. The team has never drafted a player at second base. Fourteen of the players came from high schools or universities in the state of California, and Florida follows with eight players. The White Sox have also drafted six players from their home state of Illinois.
One White Sox first-round pick is a member of the Hall of Fame; Frank Thomas (1989) was elected to the Hall at his first opportunity in 2014. One player has won a championship with the team; Aaron Rowand (1998) was part of the 2005 World Series championship team. Thomas was a member of the White Sox for 16 years, including the 2005 season, but was not part of the World Series roster due to injury. Thomas is also the only first-round draft pick to win the Most Valuable Player Award, winning the American League honors in both 1993 and 1994. One pick, 1987 selection Jack McDowell, has won the Cy Young Award with the team; he won it in 1993. The White Sox had the first overall selection twice in the draft, which they used on Danny Goodwin (1971) and Harold Baines (1977).
The White Sox have made 16 selections in the supplemental round of the draft and 5 compensatory picks since the institution of the First-Year Player Draft in 1965. These additional picks are provided when a team loses a particularly valuable free agent in the previous off-season, or, more recently, if a team fails to sign a draft pick from the previous year. The White Sox have failed to sign three of their first-round picks: Danny Goodwin (1971), Steve Buechele (1979), and Bobby Seay (1996). The White Sox did not receive any compensation for Goodwin or Buechele, but they did receive the 51st pick in 1997 for failing to sign Seay.

## Key

| Year | Each year links to an article about that year's Major League Baseball Draft. |
| Position | Indicates the secondary/collegiate position at which the player was drafted, rather than the professional position the player may have gone on to play |
| Pick | Indicates the number of the pick |
| * | Player did not sign with the White Sox |
| § | Indicates a supplemental pick |
| † | Member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame |
| '05 | Player was a member of the White Sox' 2005 championship team |

## Picks

| Year | Name | Position | School (location) | Pick |
| 1965 | Ken Plesha | Catcher | University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame, Indiana) | 17 |
| 1966 | Carlos May | Outfielder | A. H. Parker High School (Birmingham, Alabama) | 18 |
| 1967 | William Haynes | Third baseman | Headland High School (East Point, Georgia) | 13 |
| 1968 | Rich McKinney | Shortstop | Ohio University (Athens, Ohio) | 14 |
| 1969 | Ted Nicholson | Third baseman | Oak Park High School (Laurel, Mississippi) | 3 |
| 1970 | Lee Richard | Shortstop | Southern University (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) | 6 |
| 1971 | Danny Goodwin* | Catcher | Peoria Central High School (Peoria, Illinois) | 1 |
| 1972 | Mike Ondina | Outfielder | Cordova High School (Rancho Cordova, California) | 12 |
| 1973 | Steve Swisher | Catcher | Ohio University (Athens, Ohio) | 21 |
| 1974 | Larry Monroe | Right-handed pitcher | Forest View High School (Arlington Heights, Illinois) | 8 |
| 1975 | Chris Knapp | Right-handed pitcher | Central Michigan University (Mount Pleasant, Michigan) | 11 |
| 1976 | Steve Trout | Left-handed pitcher | Thornwood High School (South Holland, Illinois) | 8 |
| 1977 | Harold Baines$^†$ | First baseman | St. Michael's High School (Easton, Maryland) | 1 |
| 1978 | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick |
| 1979 | Steve Buechele* | Shortstop | Servite High School (Anaheim, California) | 9 |
| 1979 | Ricky Seilheimer | Catcher | Brenham High School (Brenham, Texas) | 19$^§$ |
| 1980 | Cecil Espy | Outfielder | Point Loma High School (San Diego, California) | 8 |
| 1981 | Daryl Boston | Left-handed pitcher | Woodward High School (Cincinnati, Ohio) | 7 |
| 1982 | Ron Karkovice | Catcher | William R. Boone High School (Orlando, Florida) | 14 |
| 1983 | Joel Davis | Right-handed pitcher | Sandalwood High School (Jacksonville, Florida) | 13 |
| 1983 | Russ Morman | Outfielder | Wichita State University (Wichita, Kansas) | 28$^§$ |
| 1984 | Tony Menendez | Right-handed pitcher | American High School (Miami, Florida) | 20 |
| 1984 | Tom Hartley | Outfielder | Hudson's Bay High School (Vancouver, Washington) | 26 |
| 1985 | Kurt Brown | Catcher | Glendora High School (Glendora, California) | 5 |
| 1986 | Grady Hall | Left-handed pitcher | Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois) | 20 |
| 1987 | Jack McDowell | Right-handed pitcher | Stanford University (Stanford, California) | 5 |
| 1988 | Robin Ventura | Third baseman | Oklahoma State University–Stillwater (Stillwater, Oklahoma) | 10 |
| 1989 | Frank Thomas$^†$ | First baseman | Auburn University (Auburn, Alabama) | 7 |
| 1990 | Alex Fernandez | Right-handed pitcher | Miami Dade College (Miami, Florida) | 4 |
| 1991 | Scott Ruffcorn | Right-handed pitcher | Baylor University (Waco, Texas) | 25 |
| 1992 | Eddie Pearson | First baseman | Bishop State Community College (Mobile, Alabama) | 24 |
| 1993 | Scott Christman | Left-handed pitcher | Oregon State University (Corvallis, Oregon) | 17 |
| 1994 | Mark Johnson | Catcher | Warner Robins High School (Warner Robins, Georgia) | 26 |
| 1994 | Chris Clemons | Right-handed pitcher | Texas A&M University (College Station, Texas) | 33$^§$ |
| 1995 | Jeff Liefer | Third baseman | California State University, Long Beach (Long Beach, California) | 25 |
| 1996 | Bobby Seay* | Left-handed pitcher | Sarasota High School (Sarasota, Florida) | 12 |
| 1997 | Jason Dellaero | Shortstop | University of South Florida (Tampa, Florida) | 15 |
| 1997 | Kyle Kane | Right-handed pitcher | Saddleback College (Mission Viejo, California) | 33$^§$ |
| 1997 | Brett Caradonna | Outfielder | El Capitan High School (Lakeside, California) | 34$^§$ |
| 1997 | Aaron Myette | Right-handed pitcher | Central Arizona College (Coolidge, Arizona) | 43$^§$ |
| 1997 | Jim Parque | Left-handed pitcher | University of California, Los Angeles (Los Angeles, California) | 46$^§$ |
| 1997 | Rocky Biddle | Right-handed pitcher | California State University, Long Beach (Long Beach, California) | 51$^§$ |
| 1998 | Kip Wells | Right-handed pitcher | Baylor University (Waco, Texas) | 16 |
| 1998 | Aaron Rowand '05 | Outfielder | California State University, Fullerton (Fullerton, California) | 35$^§$ |
| 1999 | Jason Stumm | Right-handed pitcher | Centralia High School (Centralia, Washington) | 15 |
| 1999 | Matt Ginter | Right-handed pitcher | Mississippi State University (Mississippi State, Mississippi) | 22$^§$ |
| 1999 | Brian West | Right-handed pitcher | West Monroe High School (West Monroe, Louisiana) | 35$^§$ |
| 1999 | Rob Purvis | Right-handed pitcher | Bradley University (Peoria, Illinois) | 45$^§$ |
| 2000 | Joe Borchard | Outfielder | Stanford University (Stanford, California) | 12 |
| 2001 | Kris Honel | Right-handed pitcher | Providence Catholic High School (New Lenox, Illinois) | 16 |
| 2001 | Wyatt Allen | Right-handed pitcher | University of Tennessee (Knoxville, Tennessee) | 39$^§$ |
| 2002 | Royce Ring | Left-handed pitcher | San Diego State University (San Diego, California) | 18 |
| 2003 | Brian Anderson | Outfielder | University of Arizona (Tucson, Arizona) | 15 |
| 2004 | Josh Fields | Third baseman | Oklahoma State University–Stillwater (Stillwater, Oklahoma) | 18 |
| 2004 | Tyler Lumsden | Left-handed pitcher | Clemson University (Clemson, South Carolina) | 34$^§$ |
| 2004 | Gio Gonzalez | Left-handed pitcher | Monsignor Edward Pace High School (Opa-locka, Florida) | 38$^§$ |
| 2005 | Lance Broadway | Right-handed pitcher | Texas Christian University (Fort Worth, Texas) | 15 |
| 2006 | Kyle McCulloch | Right-handed pitcher | University of Texas at Austin (Austin, Texas) | 29 |
| 2007 | Aaron Poreda | Left-handed pitcher | University of San Francisco (San Francisco, California) | 25 |
| 2008 | Gordon Beckham | Shortstop | University of Georgia (Athens, Georgia) | 8 |
| 2009 | Jared Mitchell | Outfielder | Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) | 23 |
| 2009 | Josh Phegley | Catcher | Indiana University Bloomington (Bloomington, Indiana) | 38$^§$ |
| 2010 | Chris Sale | Left-handed pitcher | Florida Gulf Coast University (Fort Myers, Florida) | 13 |
| 2011 | Keenyn Walker | Outfielder | Central Arizona College (Coolidge, Arizona) | 47$^§$ |
| 2012 | Courtney Hawkins | Outfielder | Mary Carroll High School (Corpus Christi, Texas) | 13 |
| 2012 | Keon Barnum | First baseman | King High School (Tampa, Florida) | 48$^§$ |
| 2013 | Tim Anderson | Shortstop | East Central Community College (Decatur, Mississippi) | 17 |
| 2014 | Carlos Rodon | Left-handed pitcher | North Carolina State University (Raleigh, North Carolina) | 3 |
| 2015 | Carson Fulmer | Right-handed pitcher | Vanderbilt University (Nashville, Tennessee) | 8 |
| 2016 | Zack Collins | Catcher | University of Miami (Coral Gables, Florida) | 10 |
| 2016 | Zack Burdi | Pitcher | University of Louisville (Louisville, Kentucky) | 26$^§$ |
| 2017 | Jake Burger | Third baseman | Missouri State University (Springfield, Missouri) | 11 |
| 2018 | Nick Madrigal | Shortstop | Oregon State University (Corvallis, Oregon) | 4 |
| 2019 | Andrew Vaughn | First baseman | University of California (Berkeley, California) | 3 |
| 2020 | Garrett Crochet | Left-handed pitcher | University of Tennessee (Knoxville, Tennessee) | 11 |
| 2021 | Colson Montgomery | Shortstop | Southridge High School (Huntingburg, Indiana) | 22 |
| 2022 | Noah Schultz | Left-handed pitcher | Oswego East High School (Oswego, Illinois) | 26 |
| 2023 | Jacob Gonzalez | Shortstop | Ole Miss University (Oxford, Mississippi) | 15 |
| 2024 | Hagen Smith | Left-handed pitcher | University of Arkansas (Fayetteville, Arkansas) | 5 |