Brewers: 1st Round Pick Garrett Mitchell Reportedly Close To Signing

The Milwaukee Brewers are reportedly close to signing the last member of their 2020 Draft class.

The 2020 MLB Draft was completed almost a month ago, and the Brewers are just about to ink their first round pick, Garrett Mitchell.

According to Adam McCalvy, the Brewers will give Mitchell a signing bonus “right around” the slot value of $3,242,900 and the deal is pending a physical.

The Brewers had gone under slot with all of their other draft picks in what was assumed to be a plan to save money to sign Mitchell, who was viewed by many as a Top 10 prospect in this draft and he ended up falling down the board to Milwaukee at the 20th overall pick.

It was first indicated a deal was close when Haley Cruse, Mitchell’s girlfriend, posted on Instagram that they were on a flight heading to Milwaukee.

Getting A Deal Done With Mitchell

Obviously, the sooner Mitchell puts pen to paper, the sooner the Brewers can start developing him on the field. The Crew has plenty of spots currently open on their 60 man player pool for 2020 in the absence of a minor league season, and there’s a good chance the Brewers will put Mitchell in that group that will work out in Appleton at the alternative workout site.

Mitchell is not going to be ready to play in the big leagues this year but the development time will be important for him.

According to one of his UCLA teammates, Mitchell is the best athlete they’ve ever seen. According to scouts, he’s got 5-tool potential. If the Brewers can unlock his power and get the consistent bat going, Mitchell is going to be a dude.

While the Brewers had about $3.8MM in their bonus pool remaining and could have gone up to $4.2MM in their offer without any severe penalties, the Crew is getting Mitchell for close to slot at just $3.2MM. In a normal draft, those bonus pool savings would be used on picks in rounds 11-40 to get players that were tough to sign. This year, they don’t have any of those guys to pay.

Simply put, the Crew is saving a bunch of money with how they handled this draft and the bonus pool.

In a pandemic shortened season that will give the Brewers just a fraction of their normal revenue, saving money in whatever ways possible is important. Saving about $600k from their bonus pool is going to be beneficial for the Brewers bottom line.

Mitchell is about to sign and he could end up in this year’s player pool. Once the new Top 100 prospect list comes out, he’s likely to be the only Brewers player on that update.