The Chicago White Sox selected UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky with the No. 1 overall pick of the 2026 Major League Baseball Draft on Saturday in Philadelphia.

Cholowsky has been an enormously praised prospect for a few years and was viewed as the clear favorite to be the top pick of the 2026 MLB Draft before the season even began.

So, much of the baseball world has been well aware of Cholowsky for a long while, and one would think that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred would be too. Or that he would at least practice how to pronounce the name before announcing it to the world during the draft.

But Manfred mispronounced Cholowsky’s name when announcing the first pick of the draft, which was shown nationally on NBC for the first time (for the first 10 picks).

It’s pronounced chil-OW’-skee.

Manfred’s flub didn’t slip by MLB Draft viewers.

Cholowsky was even asked by the media about Manfred’s blunder and said (via the Associated Press/KTLA), “I didn’t hear it get butchered. I heard Roch and kind of lost it.”

Still, that’s pretty embarrassing stuff from the league’s commissioner on the big stage.

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