MILWAUKEE – The Brewers went into this year’s MLB Draft with only one first-round pick, but came away feeling like they netted two.
That’s because their second-round selection on Saturday at pick No. 66 was TCU outfielder Sawyer Strosnider, who was projected in many mock drafts as a first-rounder. The 22nd-ranked Draft prospect in this year’s class per MLB Pipeline, Strosnider was a tremendous power-speed threat in high school and then with TCU, where the 6-foot-2, 200-pound 21-year-old became only the sixth NCAA Division I player in the past 25 years to reach double figures in home runs, triples, doubles and steals as a freshman in 2025.
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With that performance, which included a 1.070 OPS, Strosnider was named the Big 12 Freshman of the Year. He was also selected to the All-Big 12 Conference First Team and the Big 12 All-Tournament Team, and was named a Second Team All-American by Baseball America.
But a year later, he was still available at 66th overall after slashing .273/.415/.590 with 13 homers and 12 stolen bases as a sophomore in 2026.
“Obviously there’s all of the mock drafts and rankings and stuff like that out all year, and Sawyer was in the Top 20 of that for most of the year,” said Brewers VP of amateur player acquisition Tod Johnson. “We evaluated him there. We always have a number of players in our potential mix at the top of the Draft, and for our first pick, he was somebody we discussed there. We’re happy – and surprised a bit – that he did fall as far as he did.
“We’re super excited. He’s a really athletic, potential five-tool player in the outfield.”
Here are all of the Brewers’ picks in the two-day Draft:
Trey Ebel, SS
- Round 1, Pick 25
- Bats/throws: R/R
- School: Corona High School (CA)
- Calling Card: Ebel is the son of Dodgers third base coach Dino Ebel and the brother of 2025 Brewers Draft pick Brady Ebel, who went to Milwaukee 32nd overall last season. While Brady is fluid and rhythmic on the field, Trey is more of a quick-twitch “hit collector,” said Brewers special assistant Corey Rodriguez.
- Quote: “He’s a winning player. He’s different from Brady in terms of how he gets to it, but he gets there. He’s always been a hit collector.” – Rodriguez
Sawyer Strosnider, OF
- Round 2, Pick 66
- Bats/throws: L/L
- School: TCU
- Calling Card: With a beautiful left-handed swing, Strosnider possesses massive raw power, demonstrating it in memorable fashion by smashing a dorm room window beyond the right-field fence during the 2023 Area Code Games in San Diego. But he needs to cut down on his chase rate, which could have been a factor in his slide to the 66th pick, according to the analysts on MLB Network’s Draft show.
- Quote: “My brother has Down syndrome, and I'm super close to him. He's my best friend. I understand that I can have a bad day at the plate, but he struggles to learn a little bit every day. That really puts things in perspective. Baseball is just one part of life; it doesn’t define me.” – Strosnider, via student journalist Roderick Villareal for TCU 360
More on the Brewers' 2026 Draft:
Kyle Jones, OF
- Round 3, Pick 102
- Bats/throws: R/R
- School: University of Florida
- Calling Card: He has a solid approach at the plate with good bat-to-ball skills, walking nearly as often as striking out in his college career. While he hasn’t been driving the ball, being more of a gap-to-gap hitter, there is some projection in his frame, and some think he could get to power, at least to his pull side, if he can learn to get behind the ball better.
- Quote: “He’s a very good defender in center field, a really good runner; he makes a lot of contact. He describes a lot of what we’re looking for with most of our picks. And we think he has the frame to add power as well. … He probably didn’t have quite the season he wanted to at Florida, but he’s somebody with interesting tools to put into our outfield and see what direction he goes.” – Johnson
Julian Garcia, RHP
- Round 4, Pick 130
- Bats/throws: R/R
- School: St. John Bosco HS (CA)
- Calling Card: Back to full health after undergoing Tommy John surgery as a high school sophomore, the 6-foot-3 Garcia can show off two plus pitches in his fastball and curve when he’s at his best, and he has off-the-charts spin rates. While he’ll pitch anywhere in the 92-97 mph range, he’s answered questions about maintaining his stuff by carrying mid-90s heat deep into starts, and there could be even more consistent velocity down the road.
- Quote: “He’s got one of the better curveballs in the Draft, honestly. So you know that’s a good foundation to start from. He throws a ton of strikes, and he’s a really good competitor. We’re pretty pumped that he was there in the fourth [round], and we were able to draft him in that spot.” – Johnson
Rounds 5-12
The selection of Garcia to end Day 1 started a run of pitchers for the Brewers, who took more arms – 13 in all – than usual among their 20 picks. Seven of Milwaukee’s first eight selections on Day 2 were pitchers, starting in the fifth round with Clemson right-hander Aidan Knaak, who features a plus changeup, and running through the 12th round with University of Minnesota right-hander Marcus Kruzan, a native of Highbridge, Wis., who lettered in baseball and football at Ashland High School in northern Wisconsin.
“You’re trying to collect a bunch of interesting pitchers to develop, and it’s resulted in some pretty good outcomes for us at the big league level as well as guys moving through the system,” Johnson said. “Some of the guys we took were a little off the radar. I got some texts from different people that they didn’t know who some of these guys were. That’s always good. It shows you’re doing the work. Our scouts are getting after it and digging up guys that others aren’t necessarily [scouting]. That’s always a really good thing, especially when they turn out to be good.”
Player to watch: Chase Mora, RHP
- Round 9, pick 281
- Bats/throws: R/R
- School: Texas State University
- Calling Card: The Brewers made waves by announcing Mora as a pitcher. He intended to be a pitcher at Texas State, but underwent Tommy John surgery before getting onto the field and became an infielder instead, slashing .271/.338/.485 over four seasons with 42 home runs, breaking a program record set by Paul Goldschmidt.
- Quote: “Great job by our area scout, Craig Smajstrla, down there. He stayed through the end of a blowout game where they put Mora on the mound and he was 94-96 [mph] with a really good slider. He’s an athletic-moving former position player. He’s all-in on the pitching thing, and we think there’s a really good opportunity there.” -- Johnson
Rounds 13-18
Don’t sleep on this section of the Draft, which saw the Brewers select six consecutive high school players. They have a smaller bonus pool this year but have creatively allocated those funds in recent years – here’s an explainer for what that means – to land late-round gems like outfielder Josh Adamczewski (Brewers No. 6 prospect per MLB Pipeline) in the 15th round in 2023, right-hander Bishop Letson (Brewers No. 9) in the 11th round in ‘23, and Jayden Dubanewicz (Brewers No. 24) in the 16th round in 2024.
All were selected out of high school and convinced to forego college commitments with substantial bonuses. That makes Mankato (Minn.) East High School outfielder Carson Hart (13th round), Millikan (Long Beach, Calif.) High School left-hander Daunte Bell II (14th round), Mountain Vista High School (Colo.) right-hander Keaton Maiorana (15th round), George County (Lucedale, Miss.) High School right-hander Bradyn Havard (16th round), Wilmot Union (Wis.) High School shortstop Chance Ruby (17th round) and East Carter County (Mo.) High School right-hander Brady Smith (18th round) notable in this segment of Milwaukee’s Draft.
Hart has a college commitment to Creighton, Bell to Houston, Maiorana to Minnesota, Havard to Pearl River Community College, Ruby to Illinois-Chicago and Smith to Wichita State.
Player to watch: Chance Ruby, SS
- Round 17, pick 521
- Bats/throws: R/R
- School: Wilmot (Wis.) Union High School
- Quote: “Our area scout, Ginger Poulson, has done a great job up in this area in the upper Midwest. Chance is a really athletic kid who had a really good year. He flashes tools. He can run. He’s a really good contact guy and we think there’s some power to develop there as well. He definitely wanted to be a Brewer, so that certainly motivated him. We had him in here earlier this year, and he came to our workout in Appleton as well. It was a really good opportunity to get a quality athlete with good baseball skills, as well as a local kid.” -- Johnson
Rounds 19-20
The Brewers finally snapped their streak of high school picks by finishing with a pair of college players, Minnesota State-Mankato left-hander Sam George in Round 19 and University of Houston first baseman Carsten Sabathia III in Round 20. Yes, that Sabathia.
Player to watch: Carsten Sabathia III, 1B
- Round 20, pick 611
- Bats/throws: R/R
- School: University of Houston
- Calling Card: The younger Sabathia played two seasons at Georgia Tech and two seasons at Houston, where he came back from a 2025 shoulder surgery to slash .283/.374/.511 with six homers in 107 plate appearances as a senior, splitting time between designated hitter and first base. Then there are the traits you can’t measure. More >>
Teams have until Monday, July 27 at 4 p.m. CT to agree to deals with players they draft out of four-year colleges and high schools. If a draftee goes on to attend junior college, they have a draft-and-follow option, in which they can sign following the end of their juco season and up until the week before the beginning of next year's Draft for up to $225,000.
