The Conditional Picks You Aren’t Aware Brewers Have for 2026

[Harold Hutchison]

The acquisition of Nestor Cortes was more than a one-year rental for the Brewers, it gave them a chance for a compensatory pick if Cortes pitches well enough for the Brewers to make a qualifying offer. But the Brewers don’t just have that chance with Cortes, they have two other shots with players on their roster.

Image courtesy of © Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images

The Devin Williams trade gave the Brewers what amounted to a conditional draft pick from the Yankees. But Rhys Hoskins and Aaron Civale could also net the Brewers some serious draft compensation, if the Brewers hang onto them and things pan out well. Let’s review the reasons why.

Rhys Hoskins
Hoskins lost the entire 2023 season to an ACL injury. His return in 2024 saw him post a slightly below-average OPS+ of 98. Before that, though, Hoskins averaged a 125 OPS+ over six years with the Phillies.

If Hoskins returns to the 2021-2022 form he had with the Phillies (when he posted an .822 OPS and 4.9 Wins Above Replacement, according to Baseball Reference), he could be in line for a big deal for some team looking for a full-time designated hitter/first baseman. This would be good for the Brewers, both in the short term and for the long haul.

Hoskins would be 33 years old, but in this scenario, it would be an easy call for him to decline his side of an $18-million mutual option for 2026. The Brewers would be able to offer him a qualifying offer thereafter, because the Phillies didn't do so when he hit free agency after suffering that ACL injury. After Hoskins (inevitably) signed elsewhere, the Brewers would get an extra draft pick in 2026, tucked at the end of either the first or the second round.

Aaron Civale
As with Hoskins, holding Civale could be good for the Brewers in both the 2025 season and the long run. Civale rebounded from a rough start to the 2024 season with the Rays after being dealt to Milwaukee for minor-league prospect Gregory Barrios, posting a 3.53 ERA and a 1.22 WHIP in 74 innings pitched for the Crew.

This was a slightly better line than Civale posted in five seasons with the Cleveland Guardians (3.77 ERA in 430 innings, across 76 starts). With a full offseason of access to the Brewers’ pitching lab before his his contract year, Civale could end up with a big year for the Crew—or, at the very least, surface numbers similar to Freddy Peralta’s 2024 season.

In that circumstance, it’s not hard to see the Brewers making a qualifying offer to Civale, and it wouldn’t be a stretch to see him pull in a bigger deal than Frankie Montas did; think about four years at $15 million per annum as a reasonable expectation.

That nets the Brewers a second compensation pick after the first round in the 2026 amateur draft. That would have the Brewers sitting very pretty.

The Potential 2026 Draft
For the 2026 MLB Draft, the Brewers would, in the first three rounds, potentially come away with their first-round pick, two comp picks after the first round, their second-round pick, a pick in the Competitive Balance B round, another comp pick at the end of that round, and their third-round pick.

With the Brewers having a first-round pick, a comp pick for Willy Adames, another for not signing Chris Levonas this summer, and a pick in the Competitive Balance A round in 2025, plus their second and third-round picks, there is a chance for the team to supercharge their farm system into the late 2020s and early 2030s.

For that to happen, the Brewers would need to take some risks. They’d have to hold on to Hoskins and Civale for the 2025 season; those guys would need to play well; and the player market would need to not crater under baseball's various flavors of economic pressure. That said, even as a small-market team, the Brewers run risks every season. These rolls of the dice could benefit them in a huge way for years to come.

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[Outlander]

It depends on how the season plays out. Probably best case scenario two of Woodruff, Cortes, Civale and Hoskins(longshot) get a qualifying offer but my guess when all is said and done only one of those players get a qualifiying offer from the Brewers. Zero isn't out of the question though with the injury history.

[sveumrules]

So the Brewers don't actually have the conditional picks I wasn't aware of them having, and in order to get them they will need both of Civale and Hoskins to decline a QO of around $22M?

I'd say the odds of that happening are around the same as the odds of the Brewers giving guys like Colin Rea or Adrian Houser multiyear extensions.