The Atlanta Braves are enjoying a strong second season from Madison native Drake Baldwin, who just started the 2026 All-Star Game for the National League. So the Braves are returning to the Badger State for the next big thing behind the plate.
The Braves signed seventh-round draft pick Jack Brenner, who played at Fond du Lac High School, with a $1.25 million signing bonus that ties a record for a seventh-round pick, set last year when the Philadelphia Phillies signed seventh-round pick Matt Fisher for the same price tag.
Brenner, the Fox Valley Association Player of the Year this season, is a catcher who was taken No. 202 overall. He’d been committed to Oklahoma, the program that just won the College World Series, but Jim Callis of MLB.com reported July 16 that Brenner would be forgoing that commitment to sign with the Braves.
The “slot value” for his pick spot was $307,300. As a refresher, teams are allowed to pool the assigned values from all their picks and distribute that money among its 20 draft picks as it wishes, but going more than 5% over that allotted amount of money comes attached with significant penalties. Failing to sign a player at all subtracts that slot value from the bonus pool. In other words, signing a player “overslot” means the Braves will need to “save” money elsewhere by signing players beneath their slot value.
The 6-foot, 174-pound Brenner hit .419 this season with Fond du Lac. He led the team to the WIAA state tournament and also participated in the MLB Draft Combine.
Brenner, oddly enough, was the second prep prospect from Wisconsin that the Braves had drafted in 2026. In the sixth round (pick No. 173), Atlanta drafted Muskego’s Tyson Grulkowski, a right-handed pitcher who signed for $597,500, an above-slot price tag compared to the pick’s slot value of $389,900.
Grulkowski signed with the Braves in a deal announced July 14.
The Braves also drafted New Berlin West alumnus and UW-Milwaukee catcher Dominic Kibler in the 12th round (pick No. 352). Kibler hasn’t yet signed.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin native MLB draft pick gets record bonus from Atlanta Braves
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