2026 Milwaukee Brewers MLB Draft Day 2 Thread

[Jim Goulart]

Locked on Brewers with Chuck Freimund - "Brewers double down on draft-day surprises as Trey Ebel and Sawyer Strosnider headline a bold new class. Are the Brewers’ draft strategies setting them up for sustained dominance or adding new questions to their developmental pipeline? 

Chuck and Dan Zielinski from BaseballProspectJournal.com break down the Brewers’ mix of high-upside picks, including the focus on up-the-middle talent and the philosophy behind selecting shortstops like Ebel despite a loaded prospect pool. The conversation covers late-round wildcards such as Chase Mora, local standout Chance Ruby, and Carsten Sabathia, son of CC Sabathia, and weighs the risks and rewards of drafting injured players like Julian Garcia.

Insights on Andrew Fischer’s rapid rise and how Milwaukee’s renowned scouting and player development might unlock hidden gems round out this essential analysis for Brewers fans and draft aficionados."

[Jim Goulart]

Via the "Brew Crew Review" Podcast: "Brewers 2026 Draft Recap and "Rapid 9"

[KCBrewerfan34]

Is there a draft pick signing area or thread? 

[Jim Goulart]

Via the Journal Sentinel Podcast: "Spencer Michaelis of Brewer Fanatic and Backfield Brew joins host JR Radcliffe to discuss the Brewers' 2026 draft, from top pick Brady Ebel and second-round pick Sawyer Strosnider to the sleepers Spencer really likes, including a dominant high-school pitcher from California. After JR looks back at the all-star game (a boring 4-0 win by the American League), the two also discuss the news Wednesday that the Brewers had traded for Astros pitchers Lance McCullers Jr. and Colton Gordon. Both pitchers have some question marks; what should we make of the transaction? Plus: What are the minor-league story lines to watch in the second half of 2026?"

[TwinsBrewersWorldSeries]

21 hours ago, KCBrewerfan34 said:

Is there a draft pick signing area or thread? 

I was just thinking about this. IIRC from last year, there is a pretty defined window for us to negotiate with our picks

[snoogans8056]

Probably nothing, as it's Los Angeles and all, but 4th round pitcher Julian Garcia and 14th round pitcher Daunte Bell's high schools are less than 10 miles apart. Maybe some familiarity there.

Also their birthdays are two days apart. Kinda neat.

[JDBrewCrew]

Chance Ruby's twitter Bio says "brewers lets roll," so that's probably an indication he signing.

[TwinsBrewersWorldSeries]

20 minutes ago, snoogans8056 said:

Probably nothing, as it's Los Angeles and all, but 4th round pitcher Julian Garcia and 14th round pitcher Daunte Bell's high schools are less than 10 miles apart. Maybe some familiarity there.

Also their birthdays are two days apart. Kinda neat.

These two are up there in my highest 3-4 priorities in his draft.  Hopefully we can lock them in early

[JDBrewCrew]

Jordan Loppnow

 

@JordanLoppnow

·

37m

 

 

Shortstop Chance Ruby from Wilmot Union High School (WI), who was previously committed to the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) baseball team, is going to sign with the Milwaukee Brewers after being drafted by them in the 17th round of the 2026 MLB Draft.

[Jim Goulart]

Via the Milwaukee Tailgate Podcast feed: "This is an excerpt of Ryan and BrewerFanatic's Spencer Michaelis talking about the Brewers first couple of picks of the 2026 draft, how the money might work and also a bit about the trade the Brewers completed on Wednesday with the Astros. If you'd like to hear their discussion of every pick the Brewers made as well as some other minor league goodness, support the podcast on Patreon and also receive Paul's Weekly Packers Preview during football season."

[Jim Goulart]

 

[Jake McKibbin]

On 7/13/2026 at 7:26 PM, wiguy94 said:

Here's the thread on Havard

 

Kate to the party, but just checked out the video and that changeup looks so similar to his fastball out of the hand. If I didn't see the speed gun, I would have no clue at all on the pitch being different, it looks really impressive, though he was overthrowing in that bullpen on the FB, I'd expect slightly lower velo's in game.

Still, something to work with if he signs

[MilwaukeeBeers]

8 hours ago, Jake McKibbin said:

Kate to the party, but just checked out the video and that changeup looks so similar to his fastball out of the hand. If I didn't see the speed gun, I would have no clue at all on the pitch being different, it looks really impressive, though he was overthrowing in that bullpen on the FB, I'd expect slightly lower velo's in game.

Still, something to work with if he signs

Gotta imagine he does right? Actually drafted out of high school and strictly committing to a CC is a bit odd. 

[Spencer Michaelis]

Havard's mom followed me on Twitter, so perhaps that's a good sign lol

[Joseph Zarr]

54 minutes ago, Spencer Michaelis said:

Havard's mom followed me on Twitter, so perhaps that's a good sign lol

[wallus]

Didn't know where to go with this but it is interesting that the high schoolers we didn't sign last year all pretty much had bad seasons in college.

[TwinsBrewersWorldSeries]

2 hours ago, wallus said:

Didn't know where to go with this but it is interesting that the high schoolers we didn't sign last year all pretty much had bad seasons in college.

Who were the misses. last year?  If memory serves right, we had quite a bit of money left in our bonus pool, but could not close the deal with a couple key guys

[biedergb]

5 minutes ago, TwinsBrewersWorldSeries said:

Who were the misses. last year?  If memory serves right, we had quite a bit of money left in our bonus pool, but could not close the deal with a couple key guys

It was Lauridsen, Underwood and Cadiz. Brock and Coil were juco and college, respectively, to make the 5 who did not sign in 2025.

Also hard as a freshman in college. The potential round 1-5 guys who don’t sign play right away. The others have to compete for time.  But it is surprising since those three were pretty talented kids.

[wallus]

1 minute ago, biedergb said:

It was Lauridsen, Underwood and Cadiz. Brock and Coil were juco and college, respectively, to make the 5 who did not sign in 2025.

Also hard as a freshman in college. The potential round 1-5 guys who don’t sign play right away. The others have to compete for time.  But it is surprising since those three were pretty talented kids.

I really thought Cadiz was going to be a stud (he still might be obviously)

[TwinsBrewersWorldSeries]

Oh yeah.  I remember really wanting Cadiz and Underwood.

[wiguy94]

2 hours ago, wallus said:

Didn't know where to go with this but it is interesting that the high schoolers we didn't sign last year all pretty much had bad seasons in college.

I think it's a nothing burger. Going straight from HS to D1 is really hard. It's a bigger jump than signing a pro deal and going to the complex. 

I remember when someone made a similar comment about Levonas a year ago after he had an underwhelming first year by the stats and now he's considered a Top 10 pick in the draft next year.

[beekay414]

I mean just look at Levonas. 

Freshman season
35 IP, 5.91 ERA, 1.57 WHIP, 11.31 K/9, 5.14 BB/9,  2.31 HR/9

Sophomore season
73.1 IP, 2.82 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, 14.17 K/9, 4.03 BB/9, 0.86 HR/9

Went from looking like a bust to an ace in a year.

[James Zumstein]

On 7/25/2026 at 6:19 PM, wallus said:

Didn't know where to go with this but it is interesting that the high schoolers we didn't sign last year all pretty much had bad seasons in college.

I thought the same thing a year ago about Chris Levonas not signing. Then came his sophomore season...

[eklinka]

2 hours ago, James Zumstein said:

I thought the same thing a year ago about Chris Levonas not signing. Then came his sophomore season...

I agree. You dont sign these prospects based on what they can do in year 1. I notice some people don't recognize that college is also a development system for these young guys so looking at their college stats (especially freshmen year) isnt necessarily an indication of what they're gonna be.

[narwhalattack]

https://www.theclemsoninsider.com/2026/07/27/major-piece-set-to-return-to-clemson/
 

Knaak will not be signing. And there also goes any chance of signing the remaining HS arms. 
 

I wonder what happened behind the scenes. This is the second time in three years where we failed to sign a top 10 pick. You’d think the FO would have a good idea of what it would take to sign these guys (and whether they’d be open to signing at all), so either someone didn’t do their due diligence or Knaak backed out at the last minute.