LHP Cooper Hjerpe a Potential 1st Round Pick for Brewers

The first round of the 2022 MLB Draft begins in just a few days on July 17th, and the Milwaukee Brewers hold the 27th overall selection.

Outside of selecting Ethan Small in the first round of the 2019 draft, the Brewers have prioritized position players every other year since 2016. And if I had to guess, that’s the route I see them taking in this year’s draft as well.

The Brewers’ ability to develop pitchers through their minor league system is among the best and most reliable in baseball. When it comes to offense, however, throughout the organization, they are lacking impact bats.

For this particular reason, Milwaukee should consider emphasizing offense once again early on in the draft, hopefully increasing their chances of finding a future big league contributor. Given the organization’s ability to turn pitching prospects into key contributors at the big league level, there just isn’t the same urgency to spend a first-round pick on the position.

With that said, at the end of the day, the Brewers should be looking to take the best player available to maximize their chances of finding a future contributor–and if Oregon State’s Cooper Hjerpe is still on the board at pick 27, he may very well be that player.

Left-handed pitcher Cooper Hjerpe is a potential first-round pick for the Brewers.

Hjerpe saw most of his playing time come during the 2021 and 2022 seasons, including a major turnaround in performance this past year.

In 2021, Hjerpe logged a 4.21 ERA in 77.0 innings pitched, along with a 1.169 WHIP, 98 strikeouts, 27 walks, and six home runs. This previous season, however, despite throwing an additional 36 innings — 103.1 in total — Hjerpe gave up only three home runs and walked only 23 batters. His ERA and WHIP also plummeted to 2.70 and 0.871, respectively.

In a recent mock draft by Keith Law of The Athletic ($$), he would mention that he believes Hjerpe goes to a team that values analytics–which we know that Milwaukee certainly does.

Hjerpe is the 34th ranked prospect over at MLB.com but is routinely a first-round selection in most mock drafts and oftentimes taken before the Brewers are even on the clock.

The lefty stands 6’3″ and weighs 200 pounds. His overall grade is 50 out of a possible 80, with his fastball and change-up receiving grades of 50, specifically, along with his curveball and control with grades of 55.

For more on Hjerpe, here is what the scouting report from MLB.com had to say about his game:

"“While Hjerpe doesn’t light up radar guns, he does a have a full starter’s repertoire, a ton of deception and a huge competitive streak. His fastball will typically sit in the 91-93 mph range, occasionally touching a bit higher. It plays up because of a funky, cross-fire delivery that makes the ball hard for even right-handed hitters to pick up, and because he combines it with his breaking ball so well.“Even with the funk in his delivery, Hjerpe tends to always finish online, leading to a belief that he’s going to throw more than enough strikes in the future, and he is fearless on the mound. His ceiling is a bit limited, but mid-rotation southpaws who perform well in big college conferences tend to do decently when the Draft comes around.”"

This is a Brewers organization that could use more impact bats at every level — including in the big leagues — but as the old saying goes, there is no such thing as too much good pitching, and Hjerpe seems to be a prospect with a high floor, who could find success in Milwaukee.