Milwaukee Brewers Top 36 Prospects
Below is an analysis of the prospects in the farm system of the Milwaukee Brewers. Scouting reports were compiled with information provided by industry sources as well as our own observations. This is the second year we’re delineating between two anticipated relief roles, the abbreviations for which you’ll see in the “position” column below: MIRP for multi-inning relief pitchers, and SIRP for single-inning relief pitchers.
A quick overview of what FV (Future Value) means can be found here. A much deeper overview can be found here.
All of the numbered prospects below also appear on The Board, a resource the site offers featuring sortable scouting information for every organization. It has more details than this article and integrates every team’s list so readers can compare prospects across farm systems. It can be found here.
Rk | Name | Age | Highest Level | Position | ETA | FV |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Aaron Ashby | 23.6 | MLB | MIRP | 2022 | 50 |
2 | Joey Wiemer | 22.9 | A+ | RF | 2024 | 50 |
3 | Sal Frelick | 21.2 | A+ | CF | 2025 | 45+ |
4 | Garrett Mitchell | 23.3 | AA | CF | 2022 | 45+ |
5 | Brice Turang | 22.1 | AAA | SS | 2023 | 45 |
6 | Ethan Small | 24.9 | AAA | SP | 2021 | 45 |
7 | Jeferson Quero | 19.2 | R | C | 2024 | 45 |
8 | Jackson Chourio | 17.8 | R | CF | 2025 | 45 |
9 | Felix Valerio | 21.0 | A+ | 2B | 2023 | 45 |
10 | Tyler Black | 21.0 | A | 2B | 2025 | 40+ |
11 | Freddy Zamora | 23.2 | A+ | SS | 2024 | 40+ |
12 | Abner Uribe | 21.5 | A | SIRP | 2023 | 40+ |
13 | Hedbert Perez | 18.7 | A | LF | 2024 | 40+ |
14 | Antoine Kelly | 22.1 | A+ | SIRP | 2023 | 40+ |
15 | Max Lazar | 22.6 | A | MIRP | 2022 | 40+ |
16 | Eduardo Garcia | 19.5 | A | SS | 2024 | 40+ |
17 | Joe Gray Jr. | 21.8 | A+ | RF | 2023 | 40 |
18 | Dylan File | 25.6 | AAA | SP | 2022 | 40 |
19 | Korry Howell | 23.3 | AA | CF | 2022 | 40 |
20 | Taylor Floyd | 24.1 | AA | SIRP | 2023 | 40 |
21 | Carlos Rodriguez | 21.1 | A+ | LF | 2022 | 40 |
22 | Hendry Mendez | 18.1 | R | CF | 2025 | 40 |
23 | Zavier Warren | 23.0 | A+ | 3B | 2024 | 40 |
24 | Russell Smith | 22.8 | R | SIRP | 2025 | 40 |
25 | Alec Bettinger | 26.5 | MLB | SP | 2022 | 35+ |
26 | Brett Sullivan | 27.9 | AAA | C | 2022 | 35+ |
27 | Mario Feliciano | 23.1 | MLB | C | 2022 | 35+ |
28 | Justin Topa | 30.8 | MLB | SIRP | 2022 | 35+ |
29 | Hayden Cantrelle | 23.1 | AA | 2B | 2024 | 35+ |
30 | Victor Castaneda | 23.3 | AAA | MIRP | 2022 | 35+ |
31 | Eduarqui Fernandez | 20.1 | R | RF | 2023 | 35+ |
32 | Nick Bennett | 24.3 | AA | MIRP | 2023 | 35+ |
33 | David Fry | 26.1 | AAA | C | 2022 | 35+ |
34 | Hobie Harris | 28.5 | AAA | SIRP | 2021 | 35+ |
35 | Cam Robinson | 22.3 | AA | SIRP | 2022 | 35+ |
36 | Clayton Andrews | 25.0 | AAA | SIRP | 2021 | 35+ |
Other Prospects of Note
Grouped by type and listed in order of preference within each category.
Corner Power Bats
Ernesto Martinez, 1B
Weston Wilson, UTIL
Thomas Dillard, DH
Tristen Lutz, OF
Martinez, a 22-year-old Cuban player, has an elite baseball frame and incredible bat speed, but his swing path is barely usable and has been for a while. Wilson, 27, plays everywhere except catcher and center field, and has posted above-average batting lines throughout his minor league career, so he’ll likely get a four-corners cup of coffee with someone else eventually; Keston Hiura and Mike Brosseau are jammed in front of him on the depth chart right now. Dillard and Lutz both have plus power, but don’t have the hit tools to support where they fall on the defensive spectrum.
Older Arms and Indy Ball Finds
Peter Strzelecki, RHP
Jason Alexander, RHP
Andy Otero, LHP
Noah Zavolas, RHP
Kent Hasler, RHP
Zach Vennaro, RHP
Strzelecki, 27, spent a year at a JUCO and another one injured as an amateur, only entering pro ball at age 23. He’s had good peripherals for most of his career and dominated Triple-A in 2021 (47 innings, 65 strikeouts) largely due to deception and fastball carry. He and Jason Alexander have the best control of this group. Alexander, 28, is a minor league NRI signee who transferred several times as an amateur and missed a year with TJ. He didn’t end up in pro ball until age 24, but he has a good sinker/changeup combination and had been upper-level rotation depth for the Marlins. Otero, 29, has 30-grade velo but a snapdragon curveball and viable changeup. He’d probably make a fine four to five inning spot start if called upon. The same is true of the 25-year-old Zavolas, a kitchen sink righty with plus breaking ball spin rates among his bevy of offerings. He has struck out a batter per inning throughout his career and came via Seattle as part of the Domingo Santana/Ben Gamel swap. Vennaro, 25, was signed out of the Can-Am League. He sits 95, can sink it or ride it, and has an average slider. That was enough for him to miss about a bat per inning at Double-A. Hasler, 26, was signed out of the Frontier League. He sits about 91-92 with riding movement and throws his mid-80s slider about 60% of the time.
Youngins
Alexander Cornielle, RHP
Jheremy Vargas, SS
Edwin Jimenez, RHP
Jesus Chirinos, C
Jolon Zhao, RHP
Logan Henderson, RHP
Carlos Rodriguez, RHP
Cornielle’s slider has plus-plus movement and he got a late look in Low-A at age 20, but his delivery relief-only implications. Vargas, 18, has a skills-over-tools utility look. Jimenez, 20, has a prototypical pitcher’s frame and already sits about 90-92 with vanilla secondary stuff, though he mixes pitches in a mature way. Chirinos, another 20-year-old Venezuelan, is a maxed-out catcher who posted among the highest top-end exit velos in this system at a whopping 112 mph. The track record for guys who’ve spent four years in rookie ball — which Chirinos has if you count a lost 2020 — is not encouraging, though. Zhao was a sleeper as a teenager due to his low-90s arm strength and elite breaking ball spin. He returned from TJ this year and was very rusty, but is still worth monitoring because of his background (he’s from China) and the reps lost due to injury/the pandemic. Henderson, a 2021 fourth round JUCO arm, has a plus changeup, while Rodriguez, a sixth round JUCO arm, is a plus on-mound athlete with big time arm speed. He’s wild, but has more upside than Henderson.
Bench Types
Gabe Holt, UTIL
Corey Ray, CF
Zack Raabe, 2b
Holt has great feel for contact and could be a low-impact 2B/3B bench sort. Ray, who was arguably the top draft prospect in his class, has premium physical tools except for a 20-grade bat. Raabe had spurts of strong performance in college at Minnesota but never hit for power in wood bat leagues. He was the club’s 2021 eighth rounder.
System Overview
Some of this is due to the process by which we tend to arrive at our rankings, but the Brewers have clearly made a concerted effort to build via hit-tool oriented up-the-middle players; eight of their top 11 prospects are either middle infielders or center fielders. When the Brewers deviate from an up-the-middle approach, they’ve tended to target hitters with one premium tool, typically measurable raw power.
Their acquisition of pitchers has been less traditional, and they’re perhaps the best club in the game at plucking interesting pitchers from independent ball, including Jake Cousins, who should have been on last year’s list. Many of their pitching prospects have extreme release points or pitch characteristics that are unique in some way, which has been true for most of the David Stearns era. The group is a little thin at present and the Brewers probably need more pitching depth than they currently have to sufficiently navigate the injuries that typically befall a big league staff.
Milwaukee was one of a number of teams that seemed less inclined to protect their fringe 40-man prospects ahead of the deadline. I mentioned missing data in Joey Wiemer’s blurb. I sourced some specific TrackMan data across the entire minors at the end of the season, and most of the Brewers’ A-ball hitters are missing from it. When I checked with a source from a different org on some of those names, they were experiencing a similar issue. It’s a glimpse into how haphazard the data-sharing aspects of ops seem to be, if nothing else.
Eric Longenhagen is from Catasauqua, PA and currently lives in Tempe, AZ. He spent four years working for the Phillies Triple-A affiliate, two with Baseball Info Solutions and two contributing to prospect coverage at ESPN.com. Previous work can also be found at Sports On Earth, CrashburnAlley and Prospect Insider.
Low velo guys everywhere! Is this by design?
They love guys with deceptive deliveries and flat approach angles. That said, what stands out to me isn’t the number of low velo guys, it’s the lack of pitchers who have any shot of starting someday. Small probably will, Ashby might in a couple of years once he masters the 3-inning relief role that the Brewers use to break in pitching prospects. Russell Smith, maybe. After that you’ve got a bunch of guys who might be 6th or 7th starters if they pan out like Bettinger, File, etc. Aaaand that’s it. Good thing this team more or less has the current rotation figured out!