The Brewers have struck a $1.2MM deal with 11th-round draft pick Chad McClanahan, Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com reports on Twitter. That’s quite an unusually high payday for a player selected outside of the draft’s first ten rounds.

It’s rather notable that Milwaukee was able to free up enough cash to draw the third baseman away from a reportedly strong commitment to Arizona State University. MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy recently crunched the numbers, explaining that the club could just barely afford to pay McClanahan that amount — which is what he was reportedly asking for heading in.

The Brewers had kicked off their draft with a bit of a surprise, landing Louisville outfielder Corey Ray with the fifth overall pick after he had been in contention for an even higher selection. The club had just enough left to make its latest move, which will require it to go over its pool by 5% — just enough not to sacrifice future draft picks. There’ll be a tax on the overage, but obviously the strategic value of draft bonus space is far more important than the actual costs involved.

For their trouble, Milwaukee will land a player who rated just outside the pre-draft top-100 lists of MLB.com and Baseball America. McClanahan is a big-framed, left-handed hitting corner infielder with a projectable power bat. There seems to be a split of opinion as to whether he can stay at third, but the Brew Crew obviously feel that the upside potential in the bat is worth the risk.