If Tod Johnson and the rest of the Milwaukee Brewers’ domestic scouting department are a little more amped than usual these days, they have good reason.

Thanks to the Feb. 1 trade of Corbin Burnes to the Baltimore Orioles, the Brewers will have four first-day picks in the Major League Baseball draft for the first time since competitive balance picks were introduced in 2013.

It will also mark the first time the team has had four picks before the third round since 2012.

“It’s just going to give you that extra shot at a player that you’re interested in,” said Johnson, vice president of domestic scouting.

The draft starts at 6 p.m. Sunday, with Arizona Diamondbacks and Minnesota Twins the only other teams boasting as many picks as the Brewers. Milwaukee will select 17th (first round), 34th (competitive balance round A), 57th (second round) and 67th (competitive balance round B).

Rounds 3-10 will be held Monday starting at 1 p.m. with the draft concluding with rounds 11-20 on Tuesday, also starting at 1 p.m.

“If not (for the 34th pick the Brewers got for Burnes, along with DL Hall and Joey Ortiz), you watch a lot of good players that go off the board in that span,” Johnson said. “So, it gives us another shot at one of those guys. And then, the extra money – obviously, last year we got pretty creative.

“It makes it that much more interesting just for the access to another good player at that spot and what you can do with a bigger pool.”

Large bonus pool might allow Brewers to find value opportunities

Indeed, the Brewers bonus pool of $12,984,400 is ninth-largest overall. The slot values for the team’s picks are $4,534,100 (17th), $2,698,300 (34th), $1,562,100 (57th) and $1,226,800 (67th).

Last year, the Brewers ranked 12th at $10,950,600 and deployed that money, as Johnson noted, in an unconventional manner when they were able to sign nine of their first 11 draft picks for under-slot bonuses.

The money they saved then allowed them to go well over slot to sign a pair of highly touted high school infielders in Eric Bitonti (third round) and Cooper Pratt (sixth round) who both fell in the draft due to seemingly strong college commitments.

Bitonti got $1,750,000 instead of the suggested $796,200, while Pratt signed for $1,350,000 rather than the $309,900 expected for that spot. Both are off to strong starts to their professional careers, giving the Brewers hope that their gambit will pay off in the long term.

Milwaukee also used bonuses of $482,600 and $547,500 in order to sway the likes of 11th-rounder Bishop Letson, a right-handed pitcher, and 20th-rounder Justin Chambers, a left-hander, to forego college.

Letson, Chambers and three others counted against Milwaukee’s bonus pool because their bonuses were greater than $150,000. Chambers was ultimately traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in December in exchange for left-hander Bryan Hudson.

“Every class is different,” Johnson said. “We didn’t go into it thinking we were going to spread the money around and get Bitonti and Pratt in the third and sixth there. It’s just the way the class fell. It could certainly happen almost any year that someone you didn’t expect might slip a little farther.

“Bitonti and Pratt, both those guys, we had strong relationships with them. So, that’s kind of how we got to know what their signabilities actually were. We knew what they both wanted to go out and play.

“So, maybe it happens again this year. Maybe it doesn’t. But we don’t set up parameters at all, any year. We try to be flexible and let the draft dictate to us what opportunities are available and how we spend that money.”

Brewers have a recent penchant for college hitters in the first round

But which direction will the Brewers lean with their first-rounder?

If recent history is any suggestion, a college hitter would be a pretty good bet. Since selecting left-handed pitcher Ethan Small 28th overall in 2019, the Brewers have taken outfielders Garrett Mitchell (2020) and Sal Frelick (2021), middle infielder Eric Brown Jr. (2022) and third baseman Brock Wilken (2023).

Mitchell, Frelick and Brown all fit Milwaukee's penchant for adding athletic, up-the-middle players while Wilken filled a glaring organizational weak spot at the hot corner (2023 second-round pick Mike Boeve and Bitonti both play third base as well).

Among the college bats projected to potentially be available when the Brewers' number is called include North Carolina's Vance Honeycutt, Oklahoma State's Carson Benge and Kentucky's Ryan Waldschmidt – all outfielders – as well as third baseman-outfielder Seaver King of Wake Forest, a former college teammate of Wilken's.

Iowa right-hander Brody Brecht might also be in play.

"It's a top-heavy group," said Johnson, who estimated the Brewers met with more than 40 players at the MLB draft combine in Phoenix last month. It's there the two sides are able to get to know each other better, gauge signability and interest, and perhaps pave the way for future conversations.

"There's a top 10 that's kind of separated itself in the rankings and mock drafts, which I think is actually a good group," he said. "Then, the middle of it to maybe 50, I don't think it's necessarily a weak group but not a very differentiated group. So, it's not like you point to 20th-best player definitively and say he's definitely better than the 40th-best player.

"So, that's why I think we'll get good players at all our picks and look back and be pretty excited about what we accomplished."

Brewers recent draft classes off to solid starts

Wilken was invited to major-league spring training and turned heads with his play, leading some to believe he could see the major leagues at some point next season already. But his progress was derailed somewhat when Wilken was hit in the face by a pitch while playing at Class AA Biloxi and needed surgery.

He's since returned and, through the first week of July, was leading the Shuckers with nine home runs in 57 games.

Boeve, Bitonti and Pratt also are in the midst of solid seasons.

What defined Milwaukee's 2023 draft, though, was pitching, as the organization utilized 16 of its 21 overall picks to shore up that area. Competitive balance A pick Josh Knoth (33rd overall) was the first arm chosen and has performed well at Class A Carolina along with Letson and 16th-rounder Josh Timmerman.

Eighth-rounder Craig Yoho and 13th-rounder Brett Wichrowski already are at Biloxi with Yoho showing dominant stuff as a high-leverage reliever.

"You don't ever want to get too excited too early," Johnson said. "Brock got off to a decent start and then he got hit. He had to come back and basically have spring training over again, in some ways. (Knoth) is super young and done a really good job in his first full season. A lot of teams keep their high school pitchers like that at the Complex League for a year to control it more.

"(Bitonti's) hitting really well in Arizona and I think he really wants out of there (to be promoted to Carolina). (Pratt) has been great and done everything we could literally ask. He's playing a good shortstop and hitting down there.

"So far, really good. I'm excited to see that the results come in there from that group, but they've got a long ways to go still, too."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers are in great spot with four first-day picks in MLB draft