This story was excerpted from Christina De Nicola's Marlins Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Marlins director of amateur scouting Frankie Piliere has never had the good fortune of hearing his number called during bingo or the lottery.

¡°I think that says I'm due,¡± Piliere said. ¡°I think the Marlins are due on my behalf because I haven't won one of those things before. So I'm hopeful that's how those things work, right?¡±

Major League Baseball¡¯s third Draft Lottery will take place at 5:30 p.m. ET on Dec. 10 from the Winter Meetings in Dallas. All non-postseason teams are entered into a lottery for the top six picks, and the Marlins are tied with the Rockies for the highest odds (22.45 percent) of getting the No. 1 selection.

The Marlins have selected first overall just once in franchise history: Eastlake High School first baseman Adri¨¢n Gonz¨¢lez in 2000. Three years later, the Marlins dealt him as part of a package for closer Ugueth Urbina, who helped them win the World Series. Gonz¨¢lez went on to record 2,050 hits and 317 homers during a 15-year career.

¡°It's a fun thing in sort of the dead of winter to look forward to,¡± said Pilere, who will be taking part in the lotto for the first time as a Marlin. ¡°It doesn't change the strategy. It doesn't change anything about the way we operate, but obviously, it makes you think, it makes you wonder. It makes you think about the players that might be available. But at the same time, I think about the classes and what they look like, how much they change from December to June, July.

¡°It's mainly a fun kind of speculative thing right now. It's something to keep our minds occupied in the dead of winter, but it is fun to think about. We could have the top pick in the Draft, and that's nothing to sneeze at.¡±

The highest Miami can pick is first and the lowest is eighth, according to MLB Pipeline. Regardless of where they land, the Marlins will be in the mix for the top talent available. While MLB Pipeline has yet to unveil its 2025 MLB Draft prospect rankings, it¡¯s very likely prep shortstop Ethan Holliday (Jackson¡¯s brother and Matt¡¯s son) and Texas A&M outfielder Jace LaViollette will lead the pack.

¡°It's pretty early,¡± Piliere said. ¡°I will say this: We're looking for the class to separate itself a little bit. I don't think there's real clarity at the top right now, but that's not unusual for December. I look back at some top picks over the years. Obviously, you have the years where there's a [Stephen] Strasburg or a [Bryce] Harper or something like that, where it's just very obvious from a very early stage who that's going to be.

¡°But there are players that seem like givens now that weren't top 1-2-3 picks. They weren't when you look back at November, December of the previous year. I think it's going to be a deep class, but at the same time, we need to really get it sorted out at the top. And I guess that's what they play the spring for, right?¡±

This past July, Miami picked prep outfielder PJ Morlando at No. 16 -- its lowest selection since 2021 -- after reaching the 2023 postseason. The Marlins have chosen sixth or higher 10 times in 32 years, most recently taking LSU third baseman Jacob Berry sixth overall in 2022. Seven of those prospects have reached the Majors.

Piliere said the strategy remains to choose the player the organization thinks will have the most Wins Above Replacement (WAR) value as a Major Leaguer. Picking this high can alter the trajectory of the organization, which is trying to speed up the build process under new leadership.

¡°I think the Draft tells you over and over again, if you get those picks right, they can change your franchise,¡± Piliere said. ¡°Now there's impact up and down the Draft, but you look at the stars of the game, you get these picks right, you could really put your organization in a big spot, and you have access to players that you don't have access to lower down. There are plenty of hits and misses at the top of the Draft, but statistically speaking, over time, these players are incredibly valuable.

¡°So we won¡¯t change the way we go about it, but it changes the stakes. We know how important it is and how important it is to get it right and how difficult the Draft is. There's a lot of wrongness built into it, but if you pick first, second, third, fourth, fifth, honestly, anywhere in that range, you know it's important, because you could get a real aircraft carrier of a talent if you get it right.¡±