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MLB

T-Rat Talk: Blake Burke

Brewers 2025 First Round Pick Shows His Game Is More Than Just Power
By Kyle Lobner
July 18, 2025

A year ago this week Timber Rattlers first baseman Blake Burke had nothing to do but wait. Burke had put up huge numbers in his final SEC season at Tennessee, batting .379 with a 1.151 on-base plus slugging and 20 home runs for a team that went on to win

A year ago this week Timber Rattlers first baseman Blake Burke had nothing to do but wait.

Burke had put up huge numbers in his final SEC season at Tennessee, batting .379 with a 1.151 on-base plus slugging and 20 home runs for a team that went on to win the College World Series and become the first NCAA team in 35 years to win 60 games in a season. When the MLB Draft rolled around, however, Burke did not know where or when his name would be called until his phone rang during the Competitive Balance phase of the first round.

“I was stress-free until the day, and then the day of was a very stressful day,” Burke said. “I remember getting my name called and I was around my family and friends, and it was an amazing moment. I wish I could remember it a little more, but it was pretty cool being able to spend that time with my family and friends.”

The Brewers selected Burke with the 34th overall pick and promoted him aggressively almost immediately, skipping over the Arizona Complex League and Low-A to send him directly to Wisconsin to make his professional debut less than a month after the draft and adding him to a team that had already clinched a Midwest League playoff berth in the first half.

Players who experience high levels of success in amateur baseball often get their first significant taste of adversity when they reach pro ball, but it happened in a different way for Burke than for most: He had played just five games with Wisconsin when he suffered a season-ending injury.

“I remember just coming out here, trying to have fun and get close with the teammates and all that. They were obviously a good team, they were winning games and had already clinched a playoff spot, so I was just trying to come out here and have fun, but then I got hurt and so I had to go back to Arizona. But it was a pretty cool experience,” Burke said.

The injury, however, led to the longest absence from the playing field of Burke’s career and an extended rehab process to get back to 100% by Opening Day in 2025. Now fully healthy, however, Burke has been one of the most reliable fixtures in Wisconsin’s lineup. He played in 83 of the Timber Rattlers’ 86 games before the All Star break, second only to fellow infielder Jadher Areinamo.

Power has routinely been the most-noticed element of Burke’s game. In their prospect rankings this spring FanGraphs credited Burke with 70-grade raw power on the 20-80 scouting scale, something only 40 prospects in all of Minor League baseball possess. Thirteen of those players rank among FanGraphs’ top 113 prospects in baseball and seven of them are the top prospect in their own organizations.

One of baseball’s most dramatic changes in offensive environments, however, is noticeable in Burke’s 2025 numbers. Despite having many of the most talented amateur pitchers in the world SEC teams allowed almost seven and a half runs and one and a half home runs per game in 2024. In 2025 Midwest League teams are allowing 4.78 runs per game and 0.7 home runs, with the latter being about half of what Burke played in last year. After hitting 20 home runs in 72 games with Tennessee last season, Burke has five in his first 83 with Wisconsin.

“Just trusting your process,” Burke said. “You’ve just got to lock in on what you’re trying to do and not be too obsessed with the results that are going on. There are tough conditions sometimes and that kind of plays into your results and all that, but just trusting the process and just trying to have good at bats when you’re out there.”

One of the clearest examples of the difference between levels came in the Wednesday game of last week’s series with South Bend, when Burke hit a ball over 110 mph in the air to right field only to see it caught on the warning track.

“Yeah. I got pretty mad after that. But that’s when you kind of have to flip it and go play defense or do whatever. It’s just working on having a short memory, that’s what I’m trying to do. I mean, it’s ok to get mad, but it’s about how fast you can get over those type of things,” Burke said.

Burke cited hitting the ball in the air more and better pitch selection as a pair of things he’s working on, and both of those may lead to the ball going over the fence more often. In the meantime, however, he’s demonstrated that his game is more than just his power numbers. He’s tied for the Midwest League lead (again with Areinamo) with 95 hits on the season. Among players who have batted at least 300 times this season he ranks second with a .313 batting average and fifth with a .398 on-base percentage. His strikeout rate, which is often high for power hitters, is below the Midwest League average.

“Whenever people try to label me as a power hitter I tell them I’m also a good contact hitter, I’m a good all around hitter and that’s how I like to approach the box, just going up there and being the best hitter I can be,” Burke said. “If the ball goes over the fence then it goes over the fence, and if I have to leg out a single that’s not what I’m shooting for but if I have to try to leg it out that’s what I’m going to do. I’m just going to go out there and play hard.”

With a .313 batting average through 83 games, Burke has a realistic chance to win a Midwest League batting title in his first full season of professional baseball. He cited development and not results, however, as being his highest priority this season.

“The results are kind of secondary. Some of the things that happen, some of the hits I get are a little bit lucky, I’m thankful for that, obviously. But I'm just trying to focus on the process right now and if I win awards or whatever or have the most of whatever stat, then cool. But I’m focused on my process right now,” Burke said.

At a listed height and weight of 6’3” and 236 lbs, it’s easy to stereotype Burke as a traditional hulking and slow-moving slugger. FanGraphs touched on that in his aforementioned scouting report, where they graded him out at the bottom of the scale for running speed and cited a “lack of athleticism” as a potential drag on his development. With Wisconsin in 2025, however, Burke is also working to dispel that notion. He’s noticeably agile around the bag at first base, has legged out a pair of triples and, in a fact that he cited as his biggest source of pride from this season, he’s stolen ten bases.

“They don’t really look at me over there and so I try to take advantage of that, get a couple of stolen bases when I can,” Burke said.

Off the field, a one-time heated rivalry has turned into one of the season’s most unlikely friendships. Burke and Timber Rattlers catcher Marco Dinges traded barbs on social media multiple times while the former was at Tennessee and the latter was at Florida State last season, but now that they’re teammates Burke drives Dinges to the ballpark every day with the Timber Rattlers. One time this season Burke even went over to the on deck circle and stole Dinges’ bat when he broke one of his own on a foul ball.

“I didn’t like the bat, it made me strike out. So I probably won’t do that again. I’ll wait to go get my own bat. It’s the first time I’ve ever done that but Marco’s a good friend of mine, I take him to the field every day, take him home every day, so I didn’t think he’d mind me using his bat.”

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