Tom Maggard

The Boston Red Sox are a Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise based in Boston, Massachusetts. They play in the American League East division. This page lists prospects selected by the team in the first round of the annual Major League Baseball draft.

Officially known as the "First-Year Player Draft", the 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 that lost free agents in the previous off-season may be awarded compensatory or supplementary picks.

Since the institution of the MLB draft in 1965, the Red Sox have selected 78 players in the first round, through the 2020 MLB draft. Some of the selections have been compensatory or supplementary picks. These additional picks are provided when a team loses a particularly valuable free agent in the prior off-season, or, more recently, if a team fails to sign a draft pick from the previous year.

The primary position of each player drafted by the Red Sox in the first round, at the time they were selected, has been as follows:

Of the pitchers selected, 12 have been left-handed and 23 have been right-handed. Eleven of the players came from high schools or universities in the state of California, while Texas and South Carolina follow with eight and six players, respectively. The Red Sox have also drafted two players in the first round from outside the United States: Chris Reitsma (1996) from Canada, and Reymond Fuentes (2009) from Puerto Rico.

Several of the team's first-round selections have gone on to win notable awards. Nomar Garciaparra (1994 draft) won the Rookie of the Year Award with the Red Sox in 1997. Jim Rice (1971), Roger Clemens (1983), and Mo Vaughn (1989) each won a Most Valuable Player Award with the team. Clemens also won three Cy Young Awards with the Red Sox and another four with other teams for a total of seven, more than any other pitcher in MLB history. Clay Buchholz (2005) threw a no-hitter, the 17th in Red Sox franchise history, in his second major league start, tying him with Wilson Álvarez for the second-fastest no-hitter by an MLB pitcher. Jim Rice is the only first-round pick of the Red Sox in the Baseball Hall of Fame, having been elected to the Hall during 2009 balloting.

Seven of the team's first-round selections have gone on to win a World Series with the Red Sox: Trot Nixon (1993 draft) was a member of the 2004 championship team; Jacoby Ellsbury (2005) was a member of the 2007 team; Ellsbury and Clay Buchholz (2005) were members of the 2013 team; and Matt Barnes (2011), Blake Swihart (2011), Jackie Bradley Jr. (2011), and Andrew Benintendi (2015) were members of the 2018 team.

The Red Sox have never made the first overall selection in the draft. The earliest selection the team has had was the third pick; this occurred in 1967, when the team selected Mike Garman, a pitcher who went on to compile a career record of 22–27 while playing for five different MLB teams between 1969 and 1978. The team has signed all but two of their first-round picks across their draft history: Jimmy Hacker did not sign following the 1970 draft, and Greg McMurtry did not sign following the 1986 draft. To date, the only Red Sox first-round draft pick to make his MLB debut the same year that he was drafted was Craig Hansen, in 2005.

Three of the team's first-round selections went on to play in the National Football League (NFL) rather than in MLB: Noel Jenke (1969 draft; NFL 1971–1974), Greg McMurtry (1986 draft; NFL 1990–1994), and Corey Jenkins (1995 draft; NFL 2003–2004).