Brewers 2025 MLB Draft Class Superlatives: Best Value, Fastest To Majors, and More

Favorite Pick - 3B Andrew Fischer, 1st round

I'm not saying Andrew Fischer is my favorite pick because he's the first rounder, but Fischer is such a perfect way to lead off this class. The Brewers have been targeting more power hitters in the Draft in recent years, and have been addressing the corner infield, a position group that has been neglected for some time by the organization in the Draft.

Fischer makes it four corner infielders on the first day of the Draft in the last three years for the Brewers. Scouting Director Tod Johnson told reporters that many in their war room believed that Fischer was the best college bat in this year's class.

To grab the best college bat at the 20th overall pick and likely for under-slot value to save money for later picks, is a huge win. That's a perfect way to start off your Draft class if you're the Brewers. He fits the type of player the Brewers want to get in their system, he sets up the rest of the class and bringing in some high upside players, and he can move quickly up the ladder as well.

Best Value - 2B Daniel Dickinson, 6th Round

The Brewers were pleasantly surprised to see Daniel Dickinson still on the board in the 6th round. A top 100 Draft prospect by both MLB Pipeline and Baseball America, the Brewers were able to grab him with the 185th overall pick. All he's done since entering college ball is rake.

This season for the National Champion LSU Tigers, Dickinson hit in the middle of the order on a regular basis, with a .315 average, 12 homers, and a .983 OPS.

Dickinson doesn't have a ton of raw power, which will limit his upside, but he makes good swing decisions and gets himself on base. While he can play shortstop, second base is likely his best defensive home, but he's versatile enough to play anywhere and could fit a utility role at the big league level if more power doesn't develop. Still, finding a utility hitter in the 6th round out of college can be a rare find and presents great value.

Fastest To The Big Leagues - LHP J.D. Thompson, 2nd Round

There are some who may go with the polished college hitter in Fischer as the fastest to the big leagues, but I'm going to go with the polished college lefty pitcher in J.D. Thompson out of Vanderbilt.

Vanderbilt is a program that churns out big league caliber pitchers every single year. The Brewers have an eye for pitching and targeted him in the 2nd round as their first pitching selection of the Draft.

Thompson has a four pitch mix and already has a great understanding of how to pitch and attack hitters, rather than just trying to blow them away with insane stuff. Don't get me wrong, his stuff is still very good, the spin rates, the pitch metrics, all fit the mold the Brewers love to target. His advanced knowledge of pitching however I think makes him a good bet to advance quickly through the Brewers system.

Especially being a left-handed starter, which is always in demand, I could see Thompson rising quickly to a spot in the big leagues.

Favorite pick from Rounds 11-20 - LHP Cooper Underwood, 12th Round

If the Brewers are able to sign prep lefty Cooper Underwood away from his Georgia Tech commitment, it'll be a massive coup for the scouting department. Underwood is a projectable left-hander with good size and the present stuff to indicate there's a lot more upside left in the tank to dream upon.

Underwood's ability to spin the ball falls right in line with what the Brewers have historically targeted in their pitchers. It makes them that much more tantalizing a project for the Crew to develop.

There's potential mid-rotation upside from Underwood, and throwing from the left side makes him even more valuable. He could sign for 4th or 5th round money from the 12th round and he'd instantly become one of the better young pitching prospects the Brewers have in their system.

The Brewers tend to save some money from their picks in rounds 1-10 for big swings on prep talent in rounds 11-20, and Underwood is the big swing the Brewers are likely hoping to connect on first.

Biggest surprise - Loading up on position players

In the 2023 and 2024 Drafts, the Brewers have selected just five position players in each of those classes. Last year, they signed just three of those five. In the 2025 Draft, the Brewers jumped up to eight position players.

They started with two early, which was no surprise, but then took hitters in the 6th, 7th, 11th, 14th, 15th, and 18th rounds. They may not sign all of those picks, but for an organization that has placed a heavy emphasis on using the later rounds to find pitching and the early rounds for bats, it represents a decent-sized departure from their norm.

We will see how many they eventually sign, especially the picks in the 11-20 range. But the Brewers haven't selected this many position players in one year since 2022 when they picked 10 hitters of their 21 selections. Two of them did not sign that year.

Most Poetic Pick - LHP Frank Cairone, Comp-B Round

The Brewers received the 68th overall pick in this year's Draft as compensation for not signing the 67th overall pick last year, Chris Levonas, a high school pitcher from New Jersey committed to a college in the Carolinas. So what did the Brewers do with that compensation pick?

They drafted another high school pitcher from New Jersey committed to a school in the Carolinas.

This time, it's Frank Cairone, a Coastal Carolina commit, who has been dubbed by some as the "spin king" with his 3,000 RPM slider and electric arsenal. Hopefully for the Brewers, this time around their selection actually ends up signing instead of going to school.

What more poetic way to make use of your compensation pick from Levonas than to go right back to that well again this year. However, if Cairone also spurns the Brewers and doesn't sign, this will go from a poetic pick to the most ironic pick.

Biggest Upside - SS Brady Ebel, Comp Round

Amateur scouting is all about finding upside. What's the potential of this player if it all comes together? How good can they really be for you? Some teams take their biggest upside swings in the first round. The Brewers generally like to take theirs a little bit after that. This year the biggest upside pick is Brady Ebel.

Using the compensation pick for the loss of Willy Adames in free agency, the Brewers picked up a high school shortstop that could in time provide a similar amount of production at that position. Ebel is an advanced hitter and is still very young, just 17 years old. There's lot of room for projection on his 6-foot-3 frame.

Defensively, Ebel has the ability to stick at shortstop, his hit tool is already very good and there's more power to come. If it all comes together, Ebel can be a starting caliber shortstop that'll hit for average and some power all from the left side of the plate.

4 words to define Brewers 2025 Draft - Hit Now, Pitch Later

In what's become a standard strategy from the Brewers, they focus their early picks on hitters, in this case Andrew Fischer and Brady Ebel, and then follow up with a slew of pitchers afterward. Despite there being many quality pitchers available in that first round, some with No. 1 starter upside, the Brewers have shied away from pitching early once again.

The Brewers have now gone with hitters in the first round in six straight and in ten of their last 11 Drafts. There aren't a ton of great hitters in any Draft class, so the Brewers stock up early.

Milwaukee is also very confident in their pitching development, and rightfully so. That allows them to identify, target, and select pitchers with those later picks that fit their development system and can reach bigger upside than most teams could likely get out of them. The Brewers stocked up on projectable young arms in this Draft, and some who are polished from playing in college and ready to move quickly. It's a good variety of arms the Brewers got here to work with in the pitching lab.