Highly-ranked draft prospect falls into Brewers' lap in Round 2 of 2026 MLB Draft

With the 25th pick in the 2026 MLB Draft, the Milwaukee Brewers selected MLB Pipeline's No. 107-ranked draft prospect, Trey Ebel, and with the 66th pick in the draft, they selected Pipeline's No. 22-ranked prospect Sawyer Strosnider, offering clear evidence that the MLB Draft operates much differently than other sports' amateur drafts.

The MLB Draft isn't simply a matter of "who is the best player remaining on the board?" Rather, each team has to take into consideration their bonus pool money, which is ultimately used to sign players after they are drafted. The bonus pool is a fixed amount, meaning teams have to be strategic about how they dish out their signing bonuses, as running out of bonus pool money would result in them being unable to sign certain draft picks. As a result, highly-ranked draft prospects who don't fit team's draft strategies will occasionally slip through the cracks and be drafted far later than they were expected to.

Such is the case with the Brewers' 2026 second-round pick, Strosnider, who many expected to be a first-round pick this year. In fact, some expected the Brewers to take Strosnider with the 25th overall pick, making it an even sweeter surprise that the college outfielder was still available in the second round.

Brewers' select OF Sawyer Strosnider out of TCU with their second-round pick in the 2026 MLB Draft

As previously mentioned, Strosnider was MLB Pipeline's No. 22-ranked prospect in this year's draft class, but he checked in at No. 13 on Baseball America's rankings. The 21-year-old left-handed hitting outfielder offers a unique combination of power and speed; on the 30-80 grade scouting scale, Strosnider possesses 60-grade speed and power. In 50 games last year, he posted 13 homers and 12 stolen bases while maintaining a .273/.415/.590 slash line.

Strosnider has a beautiful left-handed swing, and his power should absolutely translate to pro ball. Where concerns lie in Strosnider's offensive profile is his chase rates. The TCU outfielder is very aggressive at the plate, which leads him to chase pitches out of the zone, but Strosnider often makes contact with those pitches, as evidenced by the fact that his strikeout numbers aren't too bad. In fact, Strosnider collected just as many walks (43) as strikeouts during his 2026 season at TCU.

An excellent athlete, Strosnider is very fun addition to the Brewers' farm system. Milwaukee certainly didn't expect to be able to select the TCU outfielder with the 66th pick in this year's draft, but that's the way the MLB Draft goes sometimes. With Ebel and Strosnider, the Brewers are off to a strong start in the 2026 MLB Draft.

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