Brewers' rival rewarded for Kyle Tucker's departure with slugging first baseman in 2026 MLB Draft

The Chicago Cubs don't often receive supplemental picks in the MLB Draft. Unlike the Milwaukee Brewers, the Cubs aren't one of the 10 lowest revenue clubs in baseball and don't play in one of the 10 smallest markets in MLB, so they are never the recipients of the Competitive Balance Round picks that were implemented in 2012 as a way to mitigate the growing financial disparity in the sport.

However, this year, the Cubs actually have more draft picks than the Brewers. Some of that is Milwaukee's own doing; the Brewers traded their only supplemental pick, a Comp Round B selection, to the Boston Red Sox in the Kyle Harrison-Caleb Durbin swap. The Cubs, meanwhile, were awarded an additional pick in this year's draft after they extended the qualifying offering to departing free agent Kyle Tucker, before he elected to sign a massive four-year, $240 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Teams who extend qualifying offers to players who ultimately turn them down are awarded draft compensation -- another way MLB is attempting to level the playing field between small- and large-market clubs. The position of the draft pick is determined by both the team's revenue and the value of the contract that the departing free agent signs with their new team. As neither a revenue-sharing recipient nor a Competitive Balance Tax payer in 2025, the Cubs were awarded a pick after Competitive Balance Round B, which landed them the 75th overall selection in this year's draft.

Chicago used that selection to draft slugging first baseman Myles Bailey out of Florida State University. Bailey was MLB Pipeline's No. 83-ranked prospect in the 2026 draft class.

Cubs select Florida State first baseman Myles Bailey with pick they earned for losing Kyle Tucker to free agency

Bailey is one of the best power-hitting draft prospects in this year's class. The 6'4", 257-lb. left-handed first baseman has 65-grade power, and it showed during his brief 2026 season with Florida State. Bailey played just 26 games of college ball this year, but he slugged 13 homers and posted a .913 slugging percentage during that stretch. He strikes out a lot, which isn't surprising for a big left-handed power bat, but his slugging ability has the potential to carry him through the minor leagues even if his swing-and-miss rates don't improve. It's undoubtedly an intriguing pick for the Brewers' top rival.

Meanwhile, though Tucker has improved as of late, the former Cubs outfielder looks far from worth the four-year, $240 million contract that he signed with the Dodgers. Paired with the intriguing prospect they just added to their farm system, the Cubs, at this point, look wise for not re-signing Tucker this past offseason.

The Brewers, meanwhile, believed they were in position to earn extra draft capital by using the same technique. Milwaukee extended the qualifying offer to right-hander Brandon Woodruff, thinking their long-time starter would decline and opt for a multi-year contract elsewhere. Such a scenario would have landed the Brewers an additional draft pick. However, somewhat surprisingly, Woody accepted the qualifying offer, and the Brewers therefore weren't awarded any extra draft capital.

As a result, the Brewers were working with less Day 1 draft capital than they normally have, which is forcing them to get more creative with their early-round selections as they have less bonus pool money to work with when signing their 2026 draft picks. However, thus far, with four strong selections today, Milwaukee is unsurprisingly navigating the challenge successfully.

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