Milwaukee Brewers Draft Allotment Announced

Baseball America has announced every team’s draft bonus allotments for the 2018 MLB Draft. The Milwaukee Brewers have been in the top of this category the last few years, but now sit in the bottom ten in terms of total draft pool size.

According to the website, the Brewers will have $6,572,600 for the coming draft’s allotment pool. This means that the Brewers can use that money to sign the players it drafts in June. The team can exceed this total by up to 5% and only pay a 75% tax on the overages. Anything over 5% will cost the team a draft pick, with the penalty getting worse every 5% after the first tier. Here’s an exceptional breakdown of how the allotment totals work by our SB Nation partner at Bless You Boys.

The Brewers took a small hit to their pool thanks to making a free agent signing. The acquisition of Lorenzo Cain cost the team its third-round draft pick and the bonus pool allotted to that pick.

Last year, Milwaukee had one of the largest pools with $10,447,700. They wound up exceeding that number but stayed just below the threshold that would have cost them a draft pick, coming in with a total of $10,968,500 in bonuses given out. The large pool gave Milwaukee the flexibility to sign three late-round picks to overslot bonuses - 11th rounder Max Lazar, 12th rounder Je’Von Ward, and 16th rounder Justin Bullock. With a much smaller pool this year, the Brewers won’t be able to take as many risks with their draft class, making the job a bit more difficult for Tod Johnson and Ray Montgomery. One of the perils of having a competitive team, I suppose.