Stock Up, Stock Down: Checking in on Milwaukee Brewers 2024 Draft Class

[Michael Trzinski]

Image courtesy of © Wm. Glasheen/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Five of the Milwaukee Brewers' top draft picks in 2024 are performing well and moving up in the organization, and two of them are already ranked in the Top 10 on Brewer Fanatic’s Top Prospect list. Let’s check out the progress of this draft class and see if they are trending up or down after the 2025 season.

Braylon Payne, CF (1st Round, 17th Overall)
Payne was signed to an under-slot deal and was initially seen as something of a reach, but he performed well in an extremely small sample in 2024, collecting seven hits in 16 at-bats at Low-A Carolina,

The left-handed-hitting Payne was injured at three different points during the 2025 campaign at Carolina, and was limited to 77 games. He didn’t hit for great power, but showed a good eye at the plate, drawing walks at an excellent rate of 15.2%. Unfortunately, he struck out at a less-than-stellar rate of 30.1%. Payne did show a great knack for stealing bases, swiping 31 in 41 attempts. Defensively, he has decent range and shows an average arm.

The youngster gets bonus points for performing well at age 19. On the other hand, Brewer Fanatic’s eighth-ranked prospect’s truncated, injury-wrecked season doesn’t show an upward trend. For his initial assignment next year, flip a coin: Wilson or Wisconsin?
TRENDING: Even

Blake Burke, 1B (1st Round, 34th Overall)
Burke’s pick was acquired from Baltimore in the Corbin Burnes trade. Milwaukee plucked him out of the University of Tennessee. He smacked 50 home runs in three collegiate seasons, so it was a surprise when he hit only five homers in his first 366 at-bats. The lefty slugger found his power stroke at Double-A Biloxi, where he hit 11 round-trippers in just 140 at-bats. Even though he posted a sublime wRC+ of 177 at Biloxi, he will probably play at least another half-season there before being considered ready for Triple-A Nashville.

The 6-foot-3, 235-pound Burke isn’t a bad defender at first base, but he did commit nine errors last season. His arm is average at best, so he will stay at first or become a DH. Burke, Brewer Fanatic's No. 15 prospect, is a below-average runner, so don’t expect many stolen bases.
TRENDING: Up

Bryce Meccage, RHP (2nd Round, 57th Overall)
Meccage earned above-slot money in the second round, based on his mid-90s fastball and a pair of high-spin breaking balls that he displayed at his high school in Pennington, New Jersey. In his first pro season, Meccage struck out batters at an above-average rate of 23.6% for Carolina, while allowing walks at a rate of 8.9%. The walk rate isn't terrible, but control is something Meccage needs to work on. If he can refine his craft, he can be a quality middle-of-the-rotation starter for Milwaukee.

After having success in 19 starts at Carolina, he is a candidate for promotion to High-A Wisconsin in 2026.
TRENDING: Up

Jaron DeBerry, RHP (3rd Round, 93rd Overall)
DeBerry, selected out of Dallas Baptist University for $25,000, pitched so well in his first professional season that he moved from Low A to High A to Double A, all in a span of three months. In those three stops, DeBerry made 19 starts (among 22 total appearances) and struck out batters at a rate of 23.9%, while walking only 7.3% of batters faced.

His best pitch is a low- to mid-80s sweeper that spins at 2,800 rpm or more. DeBerry’s fastball is pedestrian and sits in the low 90s, but he has a full suite of pitches and uses them well to keep hitters off balance.

At Biloxi, DeBerry made seven starts and performed well, but expect to see a reprise of that role to start the 2026 season. A good start as a Shucker could see him move north to the Music City sometime during the year.
TRENDING: Up

Marco Dinges, C (4th Round, 123rd Overall)
Dinges was picked out of Florida State, after a monster season wherein he batted .323/.415/.583 with 15 home runs in 64 games. Small for a catcher at 5-foot-11, he showed plus power and needed only 85 at-bats at Carolina before moving to the Timber Rattlers in High A. In 172 at-bats in Appleton, Dinges posted a wRC+ of 137 and batted .273/.371/.483 with 10 home runs. His arm grades out at 55 on the 20-80 scouting scale, but some think he might eventually move to a corner outfield spot.

Dinges might start 2026 at Wisconsin, but it would not be a huge surprise to see him begin the campaign at Biloxi.
TRENDING: Up

Others of Note:

• RHP Chris Levonas (2nd Round, 67th Overall): Did not sign and elected to honor his commitment to Wake Forest.
• RHP John Holobetz (5th Round, 156th Overall): He was the PTBNL in the Quinn Priester trade.
• RHP Tyson Hardin (12th Round, 365th Overall): Pitched well at two levels in 2025 and is currently BF’s No. 17 prospect.

The 2024 Draft class has had tons of success over the last two seasons, and we look forward to seeing these guys (and others) in Milwaukee in the near future. 

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What stands out about this group? How would you grade their stock so far? Leave a comment and start the discussion.

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[SF70]

The pitching brought in from this class is special.

Broughton-Dubanewicz-Smith-Renz-Meccage-Hardin-DeBerry-Holobetz — wow. Did I miss anyone?

Really looking forward to seeing a healthy Broughton make his debut.

[MattK]

1 hour ago, SF70 said:

The pitching brought in from this class is special.

Broughton-Dubanewicz-Smith-Renz-Meccage-Hardin-DeBerry-Holobetz — wow. Did I miss anyone?

Really looking forward to seeing a healthy Broughton make his debut.

Agreed. 

So interesting. At the time of the trade, was really irritated they dealt Holobetz.  But their pitching, at that level, is so deep ... I guess that makes sense to offer from that level. 

[SF70]

10 hours ago, MattK said:

Agreed. 

So interesting. At the time of the trade, was really irritated they dealt Holobetz.  But their pitching, at that level, is so deep ... I guess that makes sense to offer from that level. 

Get used to it.

Over the coming years this team will be trading from that pitching depth. First with low minors arms and then after they have the uppers loaded, they will trade from there and eventually the big-club.

With the team’s skill in finding amateur pitching talent I’m not seeing them change their draft strategy and with the big-club now having 7 starters with 4-6 years of control left, the time for trading some of that excess pitching is getting closer.

A true pitching factory ahead.

[Michael Trzinski]

13 hours ago, SF70 said:

The pitching brought in from this class is special.

Broughton-Dubanewicz-Smith-Renz-Meccage-Hardin-DeBerry-Holobetz — wow. Did I miss anyone?

Really looking forward to seeing a healthy Broughton make his debut.

That was a great class and even the players selected in the latter rounds have done very well. 

[sveumrules]

13 hours ago, SF70 said:

Broughton-Dubanewicz-Smith-Renz-Meccage-Hardin-DeBerry-Holobetz — wow. Did I miss anyone?

Ethan Dorchies & Griffin Tobias too. 

Was messing around with the minor league leaderboards at FanGraphs the other day and noticed there were only 31 teenage pitchers to throw at least 70 IP in all of MiLB last year.

Seven of them - Melvin Hernandez, Manuel Rodriguez, Dorchies, Dubanewicz, Renz, Meccage, Enderson Mercado - were Brewers.

 

[BrewerFan]

On 11/26/2025 at 5:03 PM, Michael Trzinski said:

Small for a catcher at 5-foot-11

This is the epitome of nit picking, but I'm seeing this a lot lately. 

The average MLB catcher is 6' 205 pounds. Over the last 5 years, that's grown a bit to 211 pounds. 

Dinges is likely to fill out being a 22 year old in High-A and he's 5'11 and 195 pounds. 
Jefferson Quero is 5'11 and 203 pounds.

They seem... pretty well in line. 

I said it was nitpicking... to be fair. 

 

I agree wth everything else and it's a great breakdown of the draft. And what's even more... amusing is it was a much weaker draft than the year prior!
(Edit... which obviously simply means the year before was comically insanely talented, this class was very good). 

[Michael Trzinski]

20 hours ago, BrewerFan said:

This is the epitome of nit picking, but I'm seeing this a lot lately. 

The average MLB catcher is 6' 205 pounds. Over the last 5 years, that's grown a bit to 211 pounds. 

Dinges is likely to fill out being a 22 year old in High-A and he's 5'11 and 195 pounds. 
Jefferson Quero is 5'11 and 203 pounds.

They seem... pretty well in line. 

I said it was nitpicking... to be fair. 

 

I agree wth everything else and it's a great breakdown of the draft. And what's even more... amusing is it was a much weaker draft than the year prior!

Fair enough. You did your research...I just *assumed* that any catcher under 6 foot is small. My bad. Happy Black Friday to you! 😎

[CheezWizHed]

On 11/28/2025 at 6:22 AM, Michael Trzinski said:

Fair enough. You did your research...I just *assumed* that any catcher under 6 foot is small. My bad. Happy Black Friday to you! 😎

Ugh... assuming. 😛

I remember when Clint Coulter was drafted.  At 6'3", he was often said to be too tall for catcher.  That is one position where being tall does make it difficult when being mobile in the crouch (and/or getting down low enough to paint a good zone). 

Oh, William Contreras and Will Smith (5'10") say hi. 😉

[TURBO]

On 11/27/2025 at 9:24 AM, BrewerFan said:

 

And what's even more... amusing is it was a much weaker draft than the year prior!
(Edit... which obviously simply means the year before was comically insanely talented, this class was very good). 

I'd like to see a thread JUST LIKE THIS ONE, for the 2023 draft!!!

[ecjimg]

On 11/26/2025 at 4:53 PM, SF70 said:

The pitching brought in from this class is special.

Broughton-Dubanewicz-Smith-Renz-Meccage-Hardin-DeBerry-Holobetz — wow. Did I miss anyone?

Really looking forward to seeing a healthy Broughton make his debut.

Agree. But I'd still rather have Trey Yesavage (passed on- probably to save money for quantity in later rounds) or Carson Benge.  Payne has to be a star for this to not be a miss pick.  Not just "Monday morning quarterbacking' when the 2 were consensus higher floor guys. 

[Spencer Michaelis]

22 minutes ago, ecjimg said:

Agree. But I'd still rather have Trey Yesavage (passed on- probably to save money for quantity in later rounds) or Carson Benge.  Payne has to be a star for this to not be a miss pick.  Not just "Monday morning quarterbacking' when the 2 were consensus higher floor guys. 

It's a little tough to look at MLB's draft this way, due to the signing bonus portion of things. Benge got $540K more than Payne did and Yesavage got $720K more. All else being equal, that's basically the difference between signing Tyler Renz and not signing him. 

Now, I also preferred those two--and some others--to Payne at the time (see tweet below), so I get it, but I do think it's always a lot harder to play this game with the MLB draft, compared to the NFL or NBA one. All that said, I also do like Payne quite a bit as a prospect and I think saying he has to be a star for it not to be a miss is a bit of hyperbole.

 

[Joseph Zarr]

4 minutes ago, Spencer Michaelis said:

It's a little tough to look at MLB's draft this way, due to the signing bonus portion of things. Benge got $540K more than Payne did and Yesavage got $720K more. All else being equal, that's basically the difference between signing Tyler Renz and not signing him. 

Now, I also preferred those two--and some others--to Payne at the time (see tweet below), so I get it, but I do think it's always a lot harder to play this game with the MLB draft, compared to the NFL or NBA one. All that said, I also do like Payne quite a bit as a prospect and I think saying he has to be a star for it not to be a miss is a bit of hyperbole.

 

I remember that quite well. I agree on your overall sentiments of the multi-faceted manner of trying to assess an MLB draft and we know the Brewers love strategizing their Bonus Pool monies in real time. It certainly isn't an exact science.

When it comes to Payne, specifically, I only want two things for Him next year:

(1) Consistent health and GP

(2) A comfortable and healthy looking swing

I feel like last season was quite challenging to judge objectively and I almost toss it aside. He suffered some truly bizarre and unfortunate injuries. Started out on par with others in that red hit opening month. The injuries piled up. He struggled finding his purest swing throughout by my eyes. If he can stay healthy amd then find that swing identity consistently he's back meaningfully in the LT picture. We have the time given his age and his relative inexperience. And, I personally don't think we have a single reason to doubt his work ethic and commitment - it's a big plus attribute. I'm hoping for bug bounce back performances from both he and Bitonti. Both young men who truly care - and maybe, at times, so much they press and lose themselves. Hopefully with maturity they can fine tune thatz

[SF70]

1 hour ago, ecjimg said:

Agree. But I'd still rather have Trey Yesavage (passed on- probably to save money for quantity in later rounds) or Carson Benge.  Payne has to be a star for this to not be a miss pick.  Not just "Monday morning quarterbacking' when the 2 were consensus higher floor guys. 

I liked Benge, and he’d sure look good in our AAA OF, and Yesavage in our rotation, but I love this team’s strategy of underslot early to pile up the savings in rounds 11-20 for maybe the best amateur pitching evaluation system in all of baseball. When you have an advantage over the rest of baseball it makes perfect sense to continue this strategy indefinitely. Pile up the pitching talent to eventual excess — then deal from that excess to help strengthen the rest of the team and still have more solid, controllable arm talent than any team in baseball.

Since Matt Arnold has taken over the draft from David Stearns, I’m not sure there’s been a better domestic draft department in all of baseball.