Brewers officially awarded additional 2026 MLB Draft pick, here's where it falls

One of the earliest examples of competitive balancing in professional sports is the existence of amateur drafts, where the order is determined by the standings from the previous season. The system, which exists in just about every major professional sport, gives a clear opportunity for improvement to the worst teams from the season prior, while punishing those that finished at the top of the standings. Therefore, in general, winning games has a negative correlation to the amount of opportunity that teams have in the following year's draft.

However, in many ways, the MLB Draft differs from its counterparts in the other major sports leagues. Not only does MLB incorporate a bonus pool system that forces teams to think ahead to future rounds before making their selections rather than simply taking the most talented player remaining, but it also includes non-traditional draft picks that have been adopted to further balance the competitiveness of the league and mitigate some of the financial disparities that exist.

One such attempt to give support to small-market clubs was the adoption of Competitive Balance round draft picks, which are additional picks awarded to teams who were either in the bottom 10 in terms of market size or revenue during the previous season. These picks either fall after Round 1 (Competitive Balance Round A) or Round 2 (Competitive Balance Round B) of the MLB Draft, with teams flipping back-and-forth between the two rounds each year.

As most Brewers fans are aware of, especially those frustrated with the team's modest payroll, Milwaukee, depending on which measurement you use, is the smallest market in MLB. As a result, Milwaukee is a perennial recipient of a competitive balance pick, and after being awarded a pick in Round A a season ago, which they traded to the Boston Red Sox in the Quinn Priester deal, they have officially been awarded a pick in Round B for the 2026 MLB Draft.

Brewers awarded first pick of Competitive Balance Round B in 2026 MLB Draft

The order in which the eligible teams make their selections during the Competitive Balance Rounds is determined by winning percentage from the previous season, with the best team being rewarded by earning the first pick and the worst team picking last. Since the Milwaukee Brewers held the best record in baseball during the 2025 regular season, they have been awarded the first pick in the Competitive Balance Round B during the 2026 MLB Draft, as reported by Joe Trezza of MLB.com.

With compensatory picks for teams losing free agents that they extended the qualifying offer to not yet set in stone, the exact pick at which the Brewers will make their selection is not yet determined. However, it's fair to expect the pick to land somewhere around the 66th overall selection of the draft, which is where it fell in 2025.

Not only does earning the first pick of the Comp B Round give the Brewers an excellent opportunity to add another talented player to their farm system, but it also gives them additional bonus pool money that they can spread across their other draft picks, something Milwaukee has made a habit of doing in expert fashion in recent years. Additionally, it must be noted that while traditional draft picks can't be traded in MLB, Competitive Balance round draft picks can be traded, and the Brewers are no stranger to trading them for win-now pieces, as mentioned earlier in regard to the Priester trade.

More often than not, winning games in a major professional sport results in your team having worse draft capital the following year. However, the Brewers being rewarded the top pick in the Competitive Balance Round B is a rare example where a team earned better draft capital as a result of their regular season success in the previous year. With the Brewers' recent run of success in the MLB Draft, jumping up a few spots and earning more bonus pool money is no insignificant development.