Brewers take Oak Creek’s Alex Binelas, eight others on second day of MLB Draft

July 12, 2021
|In Brewers
|By Zach Heilprin

Alex Binelas sat stone-faced on the couch, appearing to try to digest what had just happened. For his entire life growing up in the Milwaukee area Binelas had gone to Brewers games to cheer on the home team and was at American Family Field as recently as Friday night. Little did he know that less than 72 hours later he would join the organization when he was picked in the third round of the MLB Draft.

“There were so many emotions running through my mind,” Binelas said of his initial reaction that quickly turned into hugs and tears with family members. “I couldn’t hold back the tears. I started crying. The draft process is a crazy process and to end it by going to my hometown team, my dream place ever since I was a kid. It all hit me at once. It’s a moment I’ll never forget.”

Binelas played his high school baseball at Oak Creek and followed that up with a standout career at Louisville. Playing at third base and first base during his time with the Cardinals, Binelas batted .272 with 33 home runs and 123 RBI. That included his junior season this past spring that saw him hit 19 home runs, the fourth-best mark in the ACC, while tallying 63 RBI, which ranked second.

As a third-round pick, Binelas became the highest pick Milwaukee had ever used on a Wisconsin-born player. The chance it could happen was a topic of conversation with a couple of his best friends during Friday’s loss to Cincinnati.

“We were sitting down the first base line and they were like, ‘isn’t it kind of crazy or weird to you that we’ll be sitting in these seats and you’ll be in that batter’s box, that’s a possibility,'” Binelas said. “Now, that being my goal and something that could happen here within the next couple years, it’s awesome. It’s something me and my family and my friends always talked about, and now that I have the opportunity to make that happen, I’m really excited to get to work and hopefully get up there soon.”

The 6-foot-3, 225-pound Binelas was rated as the 65th-best player in the draft by MLB.com, so the Brewers appear to have gotten some value by taking him No. 86 overall.

“It’s amazing. It’s a dream come true,” Binelas said. “Ever since I started playing baseball when I was four years old, it was, ‘I want to be a Milwaukee Brewer one day.’ Now hearing my name called by the Brewers it’s one step closer to that dream. It’s awesome.”

Binelas was one of nine picks by the Brewers on Tuesday. Here are the rest:

Round 2, pick 51: LHP Russell Smith, TCU
Round 4, pick 116: RHP Logan Henderson, McLennan CC (TX)
Round 5, pick 147: SS Ethan Murray, Duke University
Round 6, pick 177: RHP Carlos Rodriguez Florida South Western State
Round 7, pick 207: OF Tristan Peters, Southern Illinois University
Round 8, pick No. 237: 2B Zack Raabe 2B, University of Minnesota
Round 9, pick No. 267: RHP Brannon Jordan, University of South Carolina (SC)
Round 10, pick No. 297: C Wes Clarke, University of South Carolina