Brewers Draft: Complete Draft grades for the Brewers 2024 Draft class

The 2024 MLB Draft has come and gone and the Milwaukee Brewers have made 22 selections. How did the Brewers do with all those picks?

Before we get into the grades, we need to remember a standard caveat here. We won't truly know how good these picks were for at least another 3-5 years. Drafts can look good on paper now, or even look terrible on paper now but that can all flip on its head as players develop.

These initial grades can serve to help us understand how the Brewers did in the Draft in the moment and can be looked back on as a check of just how right...or wrong the Draft experts were at the time. With all that said, let's get into the report card.

Round 1 - Braylon Payne, OF
Grade: C+

Braylon Payne was a surprise selection in the first round. Most prognosticators had Payne outside the Top 50 prospects in the Draft and the Brewers took him at 17 overall. The Brewers are going to save a bunch of money in their signing bonus pool with this pick as Payne's a well under-slot selection. That's a large reason why they took him here.

There's still a lot of good in Payne's profile. He's incredibly fast, and should end up as an elite glove in centerfield because of it. He'll steal a ton of bases and he's still just 17 years old, so there's a lot of room for projection and growth.

However, there are some drawbacks. The hit tool is very raw and may never be above-average, which it'll need to be in order to make full use of his speed on the bases. Power is presently not there, but perhaps could show up with added strength as he physically matures and gets stronger. The throwing arm also is not great, it should be good enough for centerfield, but is nothing special.

Payne described himself as a five tool player and perhaps he could be in time. In order for this grade to improve, he'll have to develop into that. Payne will most likely not be moving quickly through the minor leagues and so much is dependent on that bat developing. Yes, the Brewers were looking to save money here, but there were other options on the board where they could've saved money with a little less risk in the profile.

Round CB-A - Blake Burke, 1B
Grade: B

Blake Burke played a big role on a National Championship team with the Tennessee Volunteers. He was a slugger in the heart of that powerful lineup and productive college bats always catch the Brewers attention.

However, Burke is a first base-only profile. There is no chance he can play third base, there is no corner outfield spot for him, he is a first baseman on a DH, making pretty much everything dependent on the bat here.

The good news is, it's a pretty good bat and a left-handed slugger with a pretty strong hit tool should thrive in American Family Field. It seemed a little early for Burke, and it should save some money. He could move quickly through the system, but with Tyler Black, Brock Wilken, Mike Boeve, and now Burke, the Brewers all of a sudden have a logjam of corner infielders.

Round 2 - Bryce Meccage, RHP
Round CB-B - Chris Levonas, RHP
Grade: A

I'm going to loop these two picks together because they're very similar, they went back to back, and they're the two best picks of the Brewers draft class in my opinion.

The Brewers took big swings on upside here late on Day 1 and they're the targets the Brewers were saving money for with their first two selections similar to what Eric Bitonti and Cooper Pratt were last year.

Meccage and Levonas have "top of the rotation upside" according to Brewers scouting director Tod Johnson. Their fastballs are already up in the mid-90s and both have a pair of high spin rate sliders and curveballs. The Brewers love high spin rates in their pitchers and both these guys have full starter's arsenals to work with in the pitching lab.

High school right-handed pitchers are the riskiest demographic there is in the MLB Draft. That inherent risk and how far away these two arms are from contributing to the big league level is what keeps this grade from being an A+. There's a lot to like here and these two pitchers will likely be the highest rated prospects from this class when the Brewers top prospects list gets updated.

Day 2 picks

Round 3 - Jaron DeBerry, RHP
Grade: C

The third round is a little early for a senior sign. The Brewers are saving money here, and it could be a very significant amount on the $788k slot value. Where that money gets allocated remains to be seen, but DeBerry himself as a prospect has limited upside.

College seniors generally aren't "projection" type guys but DeBerry kind of is. He's still thin and has room to put on weight and his fastball sits in the low-90s. He'll likely need to add on weight to help him add velocity and the ability to start in the big leagues. Like the prep arms, DeBerry has really strong spin rates on his stuff, so perhaps the Brewers pitching lab can work with him, but in the end it's likely a reliever look here.

Round 4 -Marco Dinges, C
Grade: A-

Dinges was a very productive bat for Florida State this year, even though he wasn't much of a catcher. The bat-to-ball skills are very good and there's solid power here, too. If he can stick defensively behind the plate, that bat profiles very well as a starter at that position. If he has to move off it, possibly to first base, the bat isn't quite as good for those spots.

The Brewers have shown a knack at developing catchers defensively even if they don't currently have great defensive chops. Milwaukee believes Dinges has the tools to stick back there and they'll send him out behind the plate, but time will tell if he actually stays and makes it to the big leagues as a catcher.

The bat is what the Brewers are buying here and it's a very good one.

Round 5 - John Holobetz, RHP
Round 6 - Chandler Welch, RHP
Round 7 - Mason Molina, LHP
Round 8 - Sam Garcia, LHP
Grade: B

A pair of college righties and college lefties in the middle rounds give the Brewers a few more pitching lab projects while saving some money. Garcia is the only college senior of the group, so there may not be a ton of money savings here but there definitely will be some.

All of these guys will likely be sent out as starting pitchers but there is very real reliever risk with each one of them. Some might stick as a starter for a while, some might not. If any of them do stick as starters, it's back end of the rotation upside.

Molina was the highest ranked of this group but his struggles at Arkansas this season pushed his stock down.

Round 9 - Griffin Tobias, RHP
Round 10 - Ethan Dorchies, RHP
Grade: B+

The Brewers finished out Day 2 with a pair of projectable high school pitchers. Again, these are very risky arms but there is a lot of upside with these two.

Tobias and Dorchies don't presently throw as hard as Meccage and Levonas on Day 1, as these two sit in the upper 80s or low 90s, but they also have great feel to spin pitches. Projectability is the name of the game here and it'll take some time to develop these two, but they could turn into something special.

Milwaukee was saving money for most of Day 2, and these arms are where some of that money is going to be going, but there's also a lot that will go to Day 3 picks...

Overall Draft
Grade: B+

Overall it was another solid Draft class for the Brewers front office. A lot will depend on how many of those Day 3 picks sign. Last year the Brewers got way more than most expected and Tod Johnson expects they'll sign a similar amount of Day 3 prepsters this year.

The top of this Draft class is different than last year's though. While Wilken was under-slot, he was a college performer that was expected to go first round, could move quickly, and has a very high floor. Payne was a surprise first rounder and the Brewers can only save 25% maximum on that slot value since he was a Combine attendee.

The risk with Payne is super high. There's a ton of risk in this Brewers Draft class in general, actually. There's a lot of pressure on the high school pitchers to carry this class, the riskiest basket you could possibly put your eggs in.

The most surefire big league contributor from this group might be Blake Burke. Even then, he's probably an average-ish defender at first base and likely a DH eventually.

With so many pitchers, even though the risk level is high on most of them, the Brewers pitching development staff is arguably the best in baseball and they should be able to develop at least one or two of these arms into major league contributors. If at least one of Meccage and Levonas, plus one more pitcher from the rest of this class turn into useful arms, this will go down as a very good Draft class.