Milwaukee Brewers will pick 28th overall in 2019 MLB Draft

After narrowly missing the postseason in 2017, the Milwaukee Brewers improved their win total by 10 games in 2018, finishing as National League Central Division champions with a 96-67 record after defeating the Cubs in a tiebreaking game 163 at Wrigley Field. The playoffs are upcoming and Milwaukee will begin their divisional series with the Rockies on Thursday, but now that the dust has settled on the regular season, the MLB draft order for 2019 has been set.

The draft order is always determined by reverse order in the standings, but now under the new CBA teams no longer have to surrender their highest selection if/when they sign a free agent that has been offered a Qualifying Offer. When two or more teams share the same record, the team that had the lesser record in the 2017 season gets the higher pick in the 2019 draft.

By virtue of their 96-67 record, the Milwaukee Brewers will make their selection at #28 overall in the 2019 MLB Draft. Their pick is sandwiched between the Cubs (95-68) and the Athletics (97-65). This will be Milwaukee’s lowest first round selection since 2012, when they held picks #27 and #28. The team didn’t have a first round pick in 2013 after surrendering it to sign Kyle Lohse. The Brewers had the 21st overall pick this past summer and used it on prep shortstop Bryce Turang.

This will be only the second time in club history that the Brewers will draft at #28 overall. They chose Victor Roache with that pick in 2012, but he advanced only as far as AA Biloxi before getting traded to the Dodgers for cash considerations in the summer of 2017. Now 26, the power-hitting outfielder hooked on with St. Louis this past season and posted a .217/.293/.376 slash with 18 home runs in 126 games between AA and AAA.

Statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference