Brewers: 2020 Draft Class Well-Represented in New Top 30 Prospects List

The 2020 MLB draft was a short one, lasting only five rounds. According to the team’s new Top 30 prospects list, the Brewers made the most of their picks.

It’s hard to get a lot of value when a draft drops from forty rounds down to just five like the MLB draft did this year. But according to many who analyze the MLB draft, that’s exactly what the Brewers did.

Milwaukee had a theme to their draft, selecting five college hitters from various positions on the field. Many experts gave the team high grades for their draft, including us as we gave the Brewers an overall grade of ‘A’ for their picks.

With the conclusion of the draft comes updates to prospect lists. On Tuesday, MLB Pipeline updated both their overall Top 100, as well as their Top 30 prospects for every team.

The Brewers’ draft had a big effect over at MLB Pipeline. Not only did they place four of the team’s five draftees on Milwaukee’s Top 30 prospects list, but first-round pick Garrett Mitchell was added to their overall Top 100 prospects list as well.

Mitchell debuts on the Top 100

Ever since highly regarded Keston Hiura graduated to the big leagues last year, the Brewers had been mostly absent from MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 list. Brice Turang sniffed the bottom of it for a bit last year, briefly appearing at No. 98, but no Brewers appeared on the list to begin 2020.

But Mitchell put a change to all of that. The steal of a first-round pick debuted at No. 69 on the Top 100 in the post-draft update, also solidifying the top spot on Milwaukee’s Top 30 prospects list in the process.

Mitchell is one of 13 first-round picks from the 2020 draft to enter the Top 100 list and he places ninth highest out of that group. Considering the Brewers were able to get him with the 20th overall pick, that goes to show just how much value the team got in selecting him.

Three others join Mitchell on Brewers Top 30

Mitchell debuting on the top spot of the Brewers Top 30 prospects list may not have caught many fans off guard and we actually predicted as much after the draft. But the amount of players who joined him may have been a bit more surprising.

Joining him in the Top 30 were second-round pick Freddy Zamora (No. 12), third-round pick Zavier Warren (No. 22), and fifth-round pick Hayden Cantrelle (No. 25). Only fourth-rounder Joey Wiemer was absent from the list.

If any three of the remaining four picks were going to join Mitchell in the Top 30, it stands to reason that it would be these three. Before his ACL injury, Zamora was thought to be a first-round talent, while in our post-draft analysis, we identified Warren and Cantrelle as being two picks of great value. Wiemer, on the other hand, could be a bit of a project.

Of course when four players get added to the Top 30 prospects list, that means four players must be removed. Gone from the list now are Lucas Erceg, Pablo Abreu, Micah Bello, and Eduarqui Fernandez.

So many 2020 draftees being added to the Top 30 could be an indictment of the quality of Milwaukee’s minor league system before the draft or a high opinion of the draftees. Either way, they are expected to have a big chance to contribute to the future of the Brewers.