Brewers Set To Sign Pair Of High School Picks From Day 3 Of Draft Ahead Of Signing Deadline
The Brewers saved enough money to sign some more high upside talent
The deadline to sign 2023 MLB Draft picks is today. The Milwaukee Brewers have inked each of the picks from the top 10 rounds, leaving most of their Day 3 selections unsigned heading into today.
The Brewers went heavy on high school players on Day 3, knowing they wouldn't be able to sign most of them but hoping to snag at least one or two. It looks like they're about to sign two of them.
Milwaukee had already signed their two college selections on Day 3, Brett Wichrowski of Bryant University and Josh Timmerman of Ohio State.
The Brewers will sign their 11th round and 15th round selections, Bishop Letson and Josh Adamczewski.
After all of the picks from the top 10 rounds were signed, including the over-slot picks of Eric Bitonti and Cooper Pratt, the Brewers were around $700k under their total bonus pool, meaning they had a lot of money left to play with to sign some of their Day 3 guys.
Any money over $150k in signing bonus for Day 3 picks counts towards the bonus pool and these high school selections were sure to cost more than that to sign.
11th round pick Bishop Letson was the prize the Brewers were looking at on Day 3. They selected him in the first round of Day 3, meaning they had at least some confidence they could sign him and were going to be fairly aggressive in doing so. They have saved enough money to convince Letson to forgo his commitment to Purdue and enter the pro ranks.
Letson is a 6-foot-4 right handed pitcher that was ranked 179th overall on MLB Pipeline's big board out of Floyd Central HS in Indiana. Getting him in the 11th round in a steal for his value. Letson fits the Brewers pitching mold with high spin rates on his fastball, excellent metrics on his secondary pitches, and an athletic delivery. There's a lot of projection left in his tall frame as he's still just 170 pounds. As he adds muscle and fills out, his fastball should jump from the 88-94 MPH it is now. The ingredients here are strong.
Letson gets a $482,600 signing bonus, meaning $322,600 of that counts against the Brewers bonus pool.
15th round pick Josh Adamczewski is a shortstop also from the Indiana high school ranks. He was also the only position player the Brewers selected on Day 3. Adamczewski was committed to Ball State. He hit three grand slams in a four game span this year and became one of the top prep hitters from Indiana in this year's class.
Adamczewski will receive a $252,500 signing bonus, which means just $102,500 will count against the bonus pool.
Adam McCalvy's report that they were at American Family Field meeting with some of the current players indicates that they were signing and both are projected to be over-slot, although Letson is likely to cost more than Adamczewski.
The Brewers later signed 20th round selection Justin Chambers.
Just ahead of the signing deadline, the Brewers were able to agree to terms with 20th round pick Justin Chambers. He gets a $547,500 signing bonus, which means $397,500 of that counts against the bonus pool. He earned the highest signing bonus of any of the Crew's Day 3 selections.
If the Brewers don't sign any more of their Day 3 selections, they will wind up signing 16 of their 21 Draft picks. The signed class will include 11 pitchers and 5 position players. The Brewers went over their bonus pool by 1.2% to sign these Day 3 picks, meaning they'll pay a tax on that overage.