Grading the Milwaukee Brewers first round picks from the last five years

The next big milestone of the 2024 Milwaukee Brewers season is officially here. The MLB Draft begins today and the first round kicks off just hours from now at 5pm this evening. The Brewers will be on the clock for the first time with the 17th overall pick.

After several years of first round picks not working out particularly well, the Brewers have done much better in that regard in recent years. Three former first rounders have seen time on the MLB roster here in 2024 while other recent picks seem like they have a good chance of contributing in future seasons.

As we draw near to finding out who the newest first round picks of the Brewers organization will be (they have two on account of the Competitive Balance A pick they received from the Orioles in the Corbin Burnes trade), it's time to take a look back and grade the last five years of first round picks by Milwaukee. Grades will be based on a mixture of value, fit, and performance, both in the minors and majors (if applicable).

2019 - LHP Ethan Small, 28th overall

For the first time in five years, the Brewers used a non-competitive balance first round pick to select a pitcher back in 2019. The pick ended up being left-hander Ethan Small out of the University of Mississippi State.

Small wasn't one of those pitchers with a blow-you-away, high velocity fastball, but he had a solid enough overall repertoire, led by his changeup, that allowed him to be dominant in college, finishing as the conference's pitcher of the year in 2019.

The southpaw breezed through the Brewers minor league system on his way to his first MLB start in 2022 on Memorial Day against the Cubs. The start didn't go the greatest as he gave up a pair of runs and took 69 pitches to get just eight outs. Things largely went downhill from there.

Small would start giving up more runs at Triple-A and eventually convert from starter to reliever as what worked for him at the lower levels just didn't seem to do so closer to the majors. He would make just four total appearances for the Brewers over two years, giving up 10 runs over 10.1 innings.

The Brewers would end up designating Small for assignment in February, eventually trading him to the Giants where he has been on the injured list all season. The pick made sense at the time as Milwaukee looked to build their rotation of the future, but in retrospect perhaps the makeup wasn't quite what was needed for a future MLB starter. Grade: C-