Brewers Prospects: Grading the Debuts of the 2023 Draft Picks

While the 2023 Milwaukee Brewers made their push for an NL Central division title, the future of the Brewers organization was seeing their first action in several levels of minor league baseball.

Between June 9th and 11th, the Brewers selected 21 players to be a part of their organization. 18 of these 21 players would sign with Milwaukee, with Jacob Gholston, Dylan Watts, and Isaac Morton opting to honor their college commitments over turning professional out of high school.

With a few of Milwaukee's draft picks, they decided to express caution and push their debuts back to the 2024 season. All nine of the players who didn't debut in 2023 are pitchers, and due to a mix of injuries, a high amount of innings thrown in the season already, and other factors, the Brewers held these players out of the minor league season.

Draft picks who will have to wait until next year to debut include Josh Knoth (CB-A.33), Jason Woodward (4.119), Ryan Birchard (5.155), Mark Manfredi (9.272), Bishop Letson (11.332), Bjorn Johnson (12.362), Brett Wichrowski (13.292), Hayden Robinson (14.422), and Justin Chambers (20.602).

Grading Debuts of 2023 Draft Picks

(1.18) 3B Brock Wilken: A+

As the Brewers' first-round pick out of Wake Forest, Brock Wilken did everything that you could hope for in his first minor league season. Wilken was drafted with the 18th pick in the draft after posting a .345/.506/.807 with 31 home runs in just 66 games, and he continued the success of this season into the Brewers' system.

He crushed his way through rookie ball, owning a 1.036 OPS in his seven games there, before spending a majority of his minor league season in High-A Wisconsin. In his 34 games with the Timber Rattlers, Brock Wilken reached base at a .427 clip (.865 OPS), splitting his time with 27 games at third base and 7 games at DH.

His season didn't stop there, as he would reach Double-A Biloxi for the final six games of the season and slash .217/.280/.565 with four extra-base hits. While the on-base numbers did dip a bit for Brock Wilken in his final stretch of games in Biloxi, even making it through three levels and into Double-A in his first season is nothing short of incredible.

(2.54) 3B Mike Boeve: B+

With Milwaukee's second-round selection, they opted to take another third baseman, this time selecting Mike Boeve out of Nebraska-Omaha after a crazy offensive season that concluded with a .512 OBP and a 39/29 BB/K ratio. Boeve came out of the gate scorching hot as he compiled 15 hits over 9 games for the ACL Brewers of the rookie league, posting.500 batting average and a 1.556 OPS in thirty at-bats with the club.

This start would lead to a promotion to High-A Wisconsin, where he would cool off a bit statistically (.250/.333/.333 in 19 games), but his overall season numbers would still be in a very good spot, ending his first season with a .329/.400/.529 slash in 28 games. Boeve should get his shot as the full-season starting third baseman for Wisconsin next year, and he will hope to sustain his early-season success there.

(3.87) 3B/SS Eric Bitonti: B-

The Brewers focused on some youth after selecting two college hitters with their first three selections, landing 17-year-old Eric Bitonti out of Aquinas High School (CA) with their fourth selection. Bitonti showed some flashes in his first short stint with the ACL Brewers, but he would also show some flashes of this youth.

In 48 plate appearances in rookie ball, Bitonti slashed .180/.333/.410 while walking nine times and striking out fifteen times. While his walk rate was very good at 18.8%, he struck out in 31.3% of his plate appearances, leaving some to be desired in that category. While his batting average was very low, he still held a decent OPS at .744, and four of his seven hits were for extra bases (2 HRS). As Bitonti is 2.8 (!) years younger than the average rookie league player, it is a very good start for him to get any at-bats at this age, and even though there was some struggle, there was a lot of good to pull from, as well.

(6.182) SS Cooper Pratt: A

Milwaukee took a huge swing in the 6th round of the draft by selecting the Mississippi-committed Cooper Pratt with the 182nd selection and won big by signing him to a contract with a bonus that was over a million dollars over slot value. Pratt was rated as the 45th best prospect on the entire board in the 2023 MLB Draft, and his talent showed up quickly with the ACL Brewers.

Pratt slashed .356/.426/.444 in 18 games, including a 3-hit debut and a 1.250 OPS against left-handed pitchers. Pratt saw time at shortstop, second base, and DH over his time in rookie ball, seeing half of his games at the shortstop position. The only real knock on Pratt was his lack of extra-base hits, with just two doubles and a triple in these contests, but the rest of the stats jump off the page for the 19-year-old prospect. Pratt had an excellent debut in 2023, and it will be interesting to see what Milwaukee's plan for him is in 2024.

(7.212) LHP Tate Kuehner: B

Tate Kuehner was the highest-selected Brewers pitcher to debut in 2023, being Milwaukee's 7th-round selection after a successful four-year career at Louisville. Kuehner straddled between starting and relieving for Louisville over three years, but settled in nicely as a bullpen arm in 2023, pitching to a 3.99 ERA in 38.1 innings while striking out 54.

Kuehner landed in the middle with the ACL Brewers in 2023, making a relief appearance in his first outing and starting his second outing. In three innings for the ACL Brewers, Kuehner didn't allow a run, struck out two, and walked one. Albeit a very small sample size, Kuehner had success in these innings and was able to get his feet wet in the minor league system before starting his first full season next year. At 22 years old already, the Brewers could opt to move Kuehner up the system quickly, and it remains to be seen if that will be as a reliever or a starter.

(8.242) RHP Craig Yoho: D+

After spending three years at the University of Houston as a position player, Craig Yoho transferred to Indiana and performed well as a reliever, earning him an 8th-round selection by Milwaukee. Yoho had a 3.41 ERA in 37.0 innings pitched at Indiana, excelling with his swing-and-miss stuff. He struck out 63 batters in these innings (36.2% of batters), and Milwaukee hoped this would carry into his first minor league season.

Yoho made three appearances with the ACL Brewers and allowed a run in all three. He would end his first season in affiliated ball with a 10.13 ERA in 2.2 innings pitched, allowing six hits and striking out three. While I struggle giving a grade this low to anybody for such a small sample size, Yoho did struggle, and especially at his advanced age of 23 in rookie ball (1.7 years older than the average player), it is a bit discouraging to see these results. Yoho will get a fresh start next year, entering his age 24 season, and will look to grow from the ups and downs of his first MiLB experience.