Brewers Draft Pick and New Prospect Aidan Knaack Has More Upside Than You Think

The 2026 MLB Draft is behind us, and the Milwaukee Brewers found some high-upside players even outside of the first couple of rounds. Aidan Knaak is one of them. Milwaukee selected him in the fifth round, at 163rd overall. Let’s dive into his story, strengths, weaknesses and overall projection within the Brewers organization.

Knaak’s Background
Knaak is a 6-foot-1, 215-pound right-handed pitcher out of Clemson. He was already a high-profile prep product, as the righty showed great ability to keep hitters off balance as a member of the Bishop Verot High School (Fort Myers, FL) rotation. After going undrafted due to the strength of his commitment to playing in college, Knaak started his Tigers career strong, earning All-ACC honors in each of his first two seasons. 

He tumbled this year, though, as the Florida native posted an ugly a 5.81 ERA. His production didn't match, but his scouting report still garnered enough appeal for him to be a top-250 draft recruit, per MLB Pipeline; he slotted in at No. 210. Knaak has gained a reputation for sticking around the edges of the strike zone and mixing it up, with an arsenal consisting of a fastball, curveball, slider and changeup.

What’s There to Harness?
The main appeal with Knaack is his changeup, a pitch that’s earned a 60 grade on MLB Pipeline’s 20-to-80 scouting scale. He’s able to manipulate and alter it, bringing it into the mid-80s or dropping it into the 70s and (either way) showing above-average arm-side run. 

With pristine pitch tunneling, this could make for an elite weapon at the professional level. If he’s able to make the changeup stick in the 70s, it only increases the effectiveness of a low-90s fastball. With the changeup being his best offering, I’m curious how he’ll work around it. He could either set up his best pitch by getting to a two-strike count on the fastball and then bury the offspeed offering in the dirt, or he could pitch backward a bit. Starting some at-bats with the changeup to set up the breaking stuff or a heater as the out pitch might work, based on the way he commands the cambio.

There have been reports of him generating almost two feet of horizontal break and generating a whiff rate in the 50s (via Driveline). That would be considered elite at the minor-league and major-league levels.

Points of Improvement
Knaak and the Brewers could work on his fastball velocity, as a pitch currently topping out at 96 miles per hour is around average. (His average velocity is a few ticks lower.) He may not need to push the ceiling higher, but to profile as a future starter, he probably needs to bring up the floor and center line of his velocity band.

His primary issue this spring was limiting hard contact with his other offspeed pitches. His slider and curveball are graded at 45 and 40 on the scouting scale, respectively. The righty allowed an opposing slash line of .476/.500/.714 against those two pitches to college hitters; he needs a lot of work in the spin department.

Overall Projection
Knaak may have had a bumpy spring, but he’s entering the right organization to make some tweaks to his game. He doesn’t need to be a hard thrower, by modern standards. Look at the early success of pitchers like Quinn Priester in 2025 (93.9 mph fastball average) or Logan Henderson (93.1 mph fastball average) this year. 

The main objective will be working around Knaak’s potentially elite changeup, something that has been his prized possession for years. From there, it’ll be on the pitching laboratory to generate more spin on his other pitches. If he can get ahead and garner better whiff rates on other pitches, this could be someone who turns into a future rotation piece.

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