Brewers News: Did The Brewers Win A 2023 MLB Draft Lottery Selection?

Tonight was the inaugural MLB Draft Lottery. As part of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, MLB instituted a Draft Lottery to discourage tanking for top picks. The top six picks were up for grabs and all non-playoff teams were eligible. Did the Milwaukee Brewers win a lottery selection?

Because the Brewers had the best record among non-playoff teams, they had the worst odds to win a top six lottery pick at just 0.23%. Still, that's 0.23% higher than what their chances would've been prior to the lottery.

So, did the Brewers win a lottery pick?

No, the Milwaukee Brewers did not win the MLB Draft Lottery and will be selecting 18th overall in the 2023 MLB Draft.

The odds were long so it's not a surprise the Brewers didn't win. Overall, they had about a 2% chance of winning any of the top six selections.

The Pittsburgh Pirates won the first overall selection in the 2023 MLB Draft. The Washington Nationals were 2nd, Detroit Tigers 3rd, Texas Rangers 4th, Minnesota Twins 5th, and Oakland A's 6th. The Twins were the biggest winner of the lottery, moving from the 13th pick to 5th overall.

Because the Brewers had the longest odds, no one could jump them for a top six pick and push their initial selection further back than 18th. All of the Crew's picks in the 2nd through 20th rounds would've been the 18th pick no matter the outcome of the lottery.

Even though they didn't win the lottery, the Brewers will still get great opportunities to add to their farm system in the 2023 Draft. It's already been announced they're in Competitive Balance Round A, which is directly after the first round, giving them another selection in the early 30s overall. So the Brewers will have two selections in the first ~35 picks. It would've been nice if that first pick was in the top six, but 18th isn't too bad of a spot to be in.

The Draft is a crucial avenue of talent acquisition for the Brewers. They aren't able to add big time talent through free agency so drafting and developing their own players is key. That's how they've built the cornerstones of their pitching staff with Corbin Burnes and Brandon Woodruff, along with closer Devin Williams.

The lottery is a great avenue to give non-playoff teams a chance to win a top pick, but ideally the Brewers won't be worrying too much about the lottery going forward since playoff teams aren't eligible.

Now that the Brewers know for sure where they're selecting in the 2023 MLB Draft, they can build their plans for who might be available and who they want to target with their first round selection.