This story was excerpted from Martín Gallegos' A's Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

In the first two years of the MLB Draft Lottery, no team has been more snakebitten by the new process than the A’s.

Finishing with the worst record in MLB in 2023 and second-worst record in '22, the A’s twice carried the best odds to come away from the lottery to land the first overall pick. Both times, they fell out of the top three. Come Sunday and the 2024 MLB Draft, Oakland will be picking fourth overall.

While the initial reaction upon learning they dropped to fourth was one of disappointment back in December, the A’s scouting department quickly moved forward and identified a large group of amateurs they feel excited about with what will be the organization’s highest Draft pick since 1998, when future “Big Three” member Mark Mulder went second overall to the A’s out of Michigan State University.

Plus, ending up with the No. 6 selection in last year’s Draft was not exactly a failure. It landed the A’s shortstop Jacob Wilson, who now ranks as the club’s No. 1 prospect and is already on the doorstep of the big leagues, currently batting over .400 at Triple-A Las Vegas.

"We are always very excited at Draft time," said A’s scouting director Eric Kubota. "This is the culmination of all the work we’ve put in over the last year. I’ve always said it’s the hardest week, but the best week."

As a result of the changes to the Draft through the new collective bargaining agreement, because the A’s are a team that receives revenue-sharing payouts and have received a lottery pick for two years in a row, they are now ineligible for the next lottery this winter and can’t select higher than 10th overall in the 2025 Draft.

That new wrinkle does present some pressure to strike gold on this pick, though it’s no different from what the A’s usually feel around this time every year.

"We always feel the pressure at Draft time," Kubota said. "Regardless of where we are picking. Obviously, we would have preferred the lottery went another way the last two years. But we feel confident in our ability to add to the system regardless of where we are picking."