Names like Thome, Sabathia, Bonds and Pettitte have been familiar to baseball fans for the past 40 years. After this past week’s MLB First-Year Draft, they will continue to be on the fans’ radars. That’s because relatives of Hall of Famers Jim Thome and CC Sabathia, 7-time MVP Barry Bonds, and Yankees all-star lefty Andy Pettitte were among the legacy players selected in the annual amateur draft.

Landon Thome, Carsten Sabathia, Peyton Bonds, and Luke Pettitte were among 31 players, selected in the draft’s 20 rounds, who have a family member in professional baseball.

The first overall pick of this year’s draft by the Chicago White Sox was UCLA shortstop Roch Chowolski, He is the son of Dan Chowolski, a former minor-league player and current scout for the Cincinnati Reds. He is one of seven legacy players selected in the first round of the draft.

Nineteen of the first 90 players selected were legacies, with the Chicago White Sox taking three of them: Chowolsky, Thome (34th overall), and Cole Prosek (41st overall) who is the nephew of former major leaguer Matt Erickson.

Texas A&M provided four legacy players in the draft this year. UCLA had three, while Oklahoma had two. Obviously, some college programs also place a value on their players’ baseball heritage.

Nine of the draftees had multiple relatives in pro baseball, including Jacob Lombard, Trey Ebel, Caden Sorrell, Peyton Bonds, Jaxon Willits, Bear Harrison, Luke Pettitte, Aidan Teel, and Camden Johnson.

Four of the draftees had grandfathers that played in the majors, including Bonds (Bobby Bonds Sr.), Rylan Lujo (Rennie Stennett), Harrison (Skip Guinn) and Sorrell, who had both grandfathers (Billy Sorrell and Tom Griffin) previously appear in the majors. This is reflective of growing numbers of third-generation players.

The prevalence of legacy players being selected in the MLB draft is nothing new, although the total number has reduced over the years. One of the primary contributing factors is the reduction in draft rounds, from 40 to 20, beginning in 2021. Also, there has been a trend of declining percentages of the total draftees coming from high schoolers.

By contrast, the average number of legacy players drafted during the 2010-2019 decade was a whopping 140. Yet less than a third ever reached the majors. In the past, it was not uncommon for teams to make “token” selections (typically in the higher rounds) of legacy players. The selections were made as a favor to their fathers, brothers, or other relatives who were former players or coaches, not because the legacies truly had superior amateur careers. For example, the daughter of a Chicago White Sox front office executive was once drafted, so that she could become the first-ever female selected. With only 20 rounds, the days of “token” selections are over.

Click here to view a complete list of the legacy players drafted in 2026.