Milwaukee Brewers Sign 31 Draftees In 2015

Last month’s MLB draft marked the first for the Milwaukee Brewers under new Scouting Director, Ray Montgomery. While I was highly impressed with Montgomery’s first draft at the time, the question remained in regards to how many pick Milwaukee would be able to sign. With the July 17th deadline passing on this past Friday, the Brewers were officially able to sign 31 of their 41 draft picks in 2015.

There was little drama in regards to status of most of Milwaukee’s draftees; several signed within days of the completion of the draft and have already begun their professional careers. There was some intrigue, however, about the status of competitive balance pick Nathan Kirby.

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The Brewers selected the lefty ace out of the University of Virginia at #40 overall, and had to wait until after the completion of the College World Series (which Virginia won) to begin negotiating. While all along the word was that Kirby would sign, his deal will still not announced until right before the deadline. Apparently, Milwaukee had agreed to an above slot deal with Kirby before encountering a new, non specified medical concern. Kirby’s stock had already dropped with an injury troubles during the season, and in light of the new issue Kirby agreed to a below-slot, $1.25 mil deal. Kirby was considered an excellent value pick at 40th overall, and for Milwaukee to get him at an under slot deal is an even further coup for the Brewers.

During the draft, the Brewers made several later round selections of prep players that were considered high-round talents, but who went unpicked due to signability issues. Unfortunately, the Brewers were unable to sway top draft prospects like Justin Hooper, Donny Everett, or Nolan Kingham away from their college commitments (despite having some extra bonus pool money left over). Still, you have to applaud Montgomery for his aggressive selection of these high-ceiling talents; if even one have signed it would have been an incredible boost to the Brewers draft class.

Which isn’t to say that their class needs much of a boost, anyway. I stated above how impressed I was with the horde of players that Milwaukee selected, and I’m not the only one to take notice. ESPN’s Keith Law, who has especially been down on the Brewers’ farm system in the past few seasons, offered this praise for Montgomery:

BP Milwaukee’s Derek Harvey expressed a similar sentiment in regards to what the Brewers were able to accomplish to in this year’s draft, saying “we should all be happy” with how everything went, while JP Breen said Montgomery and his staff “killed it” on this year’s draft. Jeff Wiser of Inside the Zona wishes that the Diamondbacks would’ve never let Montgomery leave.

The early returns on Ray Montgomery’s first draft class look to make it nothing short of a success. The Brewers were able to not only select plenty of promising talent, but sign a majority of the players to professional contracts so they could begin their careers. High round selections like Trent Clark and Cody Ponce are already providing glimpses of the tantalizing ability that will hopefully bring them to Milwaukee before long, while the early successes of late round selections like Gentry Fortuno and Colton Cross are a reminder that every pick matters. So without further ado, here are the Brewers’ 31 official signees from the 2015 MLB Draft:

Rd 1 OF Trent Clark || AZL Brewers (Rookie)
Comp Rd B LHP Nathan Kirby || Reportedly Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (low-A)
Rd 2 RHP Cody Ponce || Wisconsin Timber Rattlers
Rd 3 RHP Nash Walters || AZL Brewers
Rd 4 OF Demi Orimoloye || AZL Brewers
Rd 5 IF Blake Allemand || Wisconsin Timber Rattlers
Rd 6 RHP Eric Hanhold || Wisconsin Timber Rattlers
Rd 7 IF George Iskenderian || Helena Brewers (Rookie)
Rd 8 RHP Nate Griep || Helena Brewers
Rd 9 RHP Karsen Lindell || AZL Brewers
Rd 10 LHP Jake Drossner || Helena Brewers
Rd 11 3B Jose Cuas || Helena Brewers
Rd 12 LHP Drake Owenby || Helena Brewers
Rd 13 C Max McDowell || Unassigned
Rd 14 1B Tyrone Perry || AZL Brewers
Rd 15 C Zach Taylor || AZL Brewers
Rd 16 RHP Conor Harber || Reportedly Helena Brewers
Rd 17 RHP Michael Peterson || Unassigned
Rd 18 RHP Gentry Fortuno || AZL Brewers
Rd 19 1B Steven Karkenny || Helena Brewers
Rd 20 RHP David Lucroy || AZL Brewers
Rd 21 RHP Jon Olczak || AZL Brewers
Rd 24 LHP Christian Trent || Helena Brewers
Rd 27 RHP Jon Perrin || Wisconsin Timber Rattlers
Rd 28 C Mitch Ghelfi || AZL Brewers
Rd 31 RHP Colton Cross || AZL Brewers
Rd 33 RHP Connor Baits || AZL Brewers
Rd 35 LHP Quintin Torres-Costa || AZL Brewers
Rd 36 RHP Jordan Desguin || Unassigned
Rd 38 RHP Scott Grist || AZL Brewers
Rd 40 C Charles Galiano || Helena Brewers

For a complete list of all the Milwaukee Brewers’ 2015 draftees with scouting reports, click here.

Next: Could the Brewers Target the Astros in Trade Talks?

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