3 crucial organizational needs for Brewers to address in the 2024 MLB Draft

Brewers Draft Need #3: Left handed pitching

You can never have enough pitching and you can especially never have enough left handed pitching. The Brewers have had tremendous success developing pitchers in recent years. Drafting and developing lefties though, has been a bit tougher, partially because they haven't drafted many of them.

Last year, the Brewers drafted four left handed pitchers: Tate Kuehner, Mark Manfredi, Bjorn Johnson, and Justin Chambers. Chambers was flipped to Los Angeles for another lefty, Bryan Hudson, a move that's working out pretty well so far.

The Brewers were only able to sign four lefties combined in the 2021 and 2022 draft classes. While lefty pitching is obviously harder to find, that makes it all the more important to have. Left handed starters are even more rare. It doesn't help the Brewers have had all three of their lefty starters hit the IL in Wade Miley, Robert Gasser, and DL Hall.

Gasser is the only lefty on the Brewers top 30 list and he's out for the next 12-14 months. Stocking up on more southpaws should be a priority.

In recent years, the Brewers haven't targeted pitching in the first round. They've gone college bats each of the last four years. Ethan Small was the last pitcher the Brewers took in the first round (2019) and that didn't work out well.

Milwaukee prioritized lefty pitching in that 2019 Draft, but missed on the majority of their picks. Seven of their first 16 picks that year were lefties. Small, Antoine Kelly (traded to TEX), Nick Bennett (5.29 ERA in Triple-A), Brock Begue (released), Arman Sabouri (released), Jackson Gillis (released), and Kelvin Bender (released) were the selections.

The need is still there to stock up on lefties with starting potential. The Brewers have selected most of their lefties on the second and third day of the Draft. Over their last four drafts, the Brewers have taken just one lefty pitcher on Day 1 (Russell Smith, 2nd round, 2021).

Possible fits: Some lefties the Brewers could take on Day 1 this year include Duke's Jonathan Santucci, Texas A&M's Ryan Prager, LSU's Gage Jump, and Clemson's Tristan Smith. Among prep arms, Kash Mayfield, David Shields, Dasan Hill, and Boston Bateman all have traits the Brewers love and could go on the first day.