Milwaukee Brewers Top 45 Prospects

Made torched the 2024 DSL with one of the league’s more cartoonish all-time statlines: .331/.458/.554 with 21 extra-base hits in 51 games. His underlying TrackMan data was even more absurd — 90% in-zone contact, 89% overall contact, 15% chase, 108 mph max exit velo, 104 mph EV90, 47% hard-hit rate — especially when you consider Made’s age. Some of these marks are comfortably two standard deviations above the big league average. They were, of course, tough to contextualize given the nature of DSL pitching, but for the most part, Made’s visual scouting report backed up the notion that he’s a very talented young hitter. At the start of 2025, Made ranked as the 38th best prospect in baseball, the second-highest ranking ever at FanGraphs for an international signee who hadn’t yet played in the U.S. (Luis Robert Jr., who was slightly older, ranked 21st overall in 2018 after playing in the 2017 DSL). Made turned 18 a few days before list publication, and in just a couple months of stateside pro ball, he has already done enough to move up, as he’s hitting for big power despite a very aggressive assignment to full season ball.

This is an incredibly talented hitter with eruptive bat speed. The verve and explosion with which Made’s body whips around like the head of an owl throughout his swing is not normal, and what’s nuttier is that he’s capable of it from both sides of the plate. He can impact the baseball with lift in most of the zone (including when he’s crowded around his hands), and his swing has a gorgeous finish. Made has been whiffing (especially against pitches in the zone) much more than was anticipated, but to expect a switch-hitter this young to be fully operational from both sides of the dish at this stage would be ridiculous. Plus, even if these issues persist (with tardiness against fastballs, mostly), Made is hitting the ball hard enough and consistently enough to end up with a functionally above-average hit tool despite a below-average contact rate. He isn’t doing it with regularity right now (especially from the left side), but Made shows flashes of being able to cover the top of the strike zone, and he has the power to do oppo damage when he’s on time enough to make contact. Additionally, early indications are that Made has premium plate discipline. Not merely average or plus plate discipline, but elite, value-adding feel for the zone. His chase rate is under 20% as of list publication, including with two strikes, when hitters tend to expand.

If Made were a domestic high school prospect, we’d absolutely be talking about him as the likely top overall pick in this year’s draft. He isn’t an especially big-framed prospect — this is not a Tatis/Seager/Correa-sized player with the truly elite raw power projection — so if he’s is going to have plus-plus raw at maturity, it’ll be because he’s grew into enormous strength akin to Ketel Marte, a player whose skill set is a fair comp for Made’s. That comp extends to the defensive side, where Made is a high-variance dev project. He has the athleticism and pure arm strength to play a good shortstop, and he’s capable of making flashy, acrobatic plays to his right. But right now, he’s also prone to clunky flubs and errant throws. Especially of late, he’s struggled to field the baseball cleanly. We’re in such early stages of his development that it’s unclear whether this is an issue of talent or a question of polish. Made’s ability to make some really slick plays gives us optimism that it’s the latter, but this isn’t a settled question. Though he has some clear areas of developmental need, Made is among the most exciting handful of prospects in baseball. He has superstar ability and ceiling, with a modest (but extant) amount of hit tool risk that will matter more if his hands on defense are actually so bad that he eventually has to move off the dirt. If you live near a Carolina League affiliate, or really any Brewers affiliate, this is a guy you should go see while he’s in the minors so that a decade from now you can say you did.

Misiorowski’s velocity climbed throughout the lead up to the 2022 draft; he was sitting 91-93 early in the year, but by the time the Combine rolled around, he was touching 100. Misiorowski quickly added a second breaking ball to his repertoire upon his entry to pro ball, and he’s been able to sustain upper-90s arm strength amid a 20-inning uptick in each of the last two years. He threw just shy of 100 innings in 2024 and was put in the bullpen late in the year as a way of limiting his workload (and in the event that the Brewers needed him out of the ‘pen for a playoff run). He broke camp with Triple-A Nashville as a starter in 2025 and as of list publication, has been enjoying a career-best strike-throwing run during the season’s first few weeks.

Miz is incredibly nasty — even at the end of 2024, his fastball was averaging 98 mph, and he has touched 103 this spring — but he has walked 13-15% of opposing hitters at each minor league level. He is a gangly and wiry 6-foot-7, incredibly loose and explosive, and simply hasn’t developed sufficient body control to throw strikes yet. His 11% walk rate in the early going of 2025 is encouraging, but while it indeed looks like Misiorowski’s ability to control his fastball has leveled up, his breaking ball feel remains erratic. Both of Miz’s breaking balls added velocity in 2024 and are up yet another tick to start 2025. His curveball is currently averaging 86 mph, and he’s thrown some 95-96 mph cutters. Misiorowski doesn’t locate his cutter or curveball in enticing spots, he just bullies the zone with them, and neither is generating plus miss early in 2025 because so many of them are either in the middle of the zone, or nowhere near it.

The relief risk here comes from both a lack of control and dicey repertoire depth, as Misiorowski uses his fastball 70% of the time against lefties because he lacks an arm-side weapon like a changeup. Though a relief outcome is arguably likely, this is the sort of long-levered, limber athlete who sometimes develops body control and feel for pitching later than his peers, and he has right tail outcomes where he’s a freaky, dominant starter. If Miz has to shift into relief, his stuff is clearly good enough for him to be a closer (he’s touching 103 as a starter, for cryin’ out loud), and Milwaukee might (at least temporarily) give that a shot late in 2025 if the team is fighting for a playoff berth.

Pratt was ranked 25th on the 2023 Draft Board but fell to the sixth round and signed for an amount more consistent with a mid-second round prospect ($1.35 million) rather than head to Ole Miss. He had something of a breakout 2024 split between the two A-ball levels, with a .277/.362/.406 line combined between Milwaukee’s Carolina and Wisconsin affiliates. After just a month of High-A toward the end of 2024, the Brewers decided to accelerate Pratt’s promotion schedule, and he broke 2025 camp with Double-A Biloxi as a 20-year-old.

The crux of Pratt’s prospect profile is his shortstop defense. Though he was flub-prone late in 2024, his overall performance as a defender across the entire season was terrific, especially from a data standpoint. Pratt’s size prevents him from having a traditional athletic look at shortstop, but his actions and exchange are sensationally quick, and he has a knack for making acrobatic plays even though he’s a bigger guy.

As of list publication, Pratt is performing in a similar, contact-oriented fashion as he did in 2024. His strikeout rate has been better than last year, but his underlying contact data (83% in-zone, 77% overall) is the same as in 2024, which is to say it’s above average but not quite plus. Pratt’s very deep, high load and longer bat path tend to make him late to the contact point against fastballs away from him. Though he demonstrates good barrel control and can move it around the strike zone (especially the inner half), this gives us pause about how he’ll do against big league fastball velocity. His splits against average or better velo reinforce what we’re seeing with our eyes; per Synergy, Pratt has a 68% contact rate against pitches 93 mph and above when you combine his 2024 and 2025 seasons, a 130-pitch sample.

Even if Pratt’s tardiness doesn’t result in a sudden spike in K’s, it’s already neutering his power. This is a lower-launch guy (11 degrees on average in 2024 and so far in 2025) who struggles to lift pitches down and away from him. If pitchers execute to Pratt there, they can limit the potency of his contact. Pratt’s measurable power data is also a shade below average. His hard-hit rate is up a bit early in 2025, but his max exits to this point have been the same, in the 40- or 45-grade range. The good news on this front is that Pratt is still very projectable as he approaches his 21st birthday. He’s a big-framed, physical guy who already looks quite strong and is likely to get stronger. Will that result in better bat speed and a swing that includes some extra verve in his wrists rather than his current arm-y version? If Pratt gets functionally stronger, then he’s got a shot to be an impact player, even if some of his current contact success is unsustainable. With his current offensive projection, he’s more of a solid everyday shortstop aided a lot by his defense, and Pratt’s profile is still subject to some bust variance because we have some reservations about the functionality of his swing.

Henderson was a dominant junior college pitcher who punched 169 tickets in just 97 innings during his draft year. He’s been injured fairly often in pro ball, but he’s been dominant when he’s been healthy. He had minor elbow surgery early in 2022 that cost him most of the year, and further soreness nixed a planned Fall League stint at the end of that season. In 2024, Henderson got off to a delayed start due to a strained oblique. But when he’s been able to pitch the last two seasons, Henderson has struck out 30-35% of opponents and walked just 5-8% across about 80 innings each year, with his excellent two-pitch foundation (a mid-90s rise/run fastball and a nasty high-spin changeup) and starter-quality command supporting his strong performance.

In addition to health/innings, a third pitch has been the missing aspect of Henderson’s profile. He began using an uphill cutter in 2023, but that pitch isn’t great. He was supposed to have more of a slider-style breaking ball in 2024, but after he returned from his oblique, he didn’t throw that pitch. In the spring of 2025, however, he has added it into his mix. It has more of a curveball look in the 82-84 mph range, with roughly average depth and bite, and it’s good enough to project to average and give Henderson a pretty clean fourth starter’s projection. His changeup is a pretty special pitch, and if Henderson can sustain the mid-90s velocity he tends to show out of the gate each spring, those two pitches are going to carry him to a fourth starter role. He made his big league debut in late April and his second start the day prior to list publication. He should root himself as an integral part of Milwaukee’s rotation throughout this year, and then for the next five or so.

The presence of Jesús Made at Low-A Carolina has relegated Peña to a roving infield role, and his .393/.457/.583, 39 stolen base performance in last year’s DSL was a bit overshadowed by Made’s emergence, but he is a promising little 18-year-old dynamo in his own right. Aggressive but not wildly so for his age, Peña’s plus bat speed allows him to make a blizzard of contact, extending at-bats even with a teenager’s swing decisions. He’s a high-waisted athlete with enough bend to spoil heaters from his neck to his shins, and he’s rarely beaten by the low-90s velo he often sees in the Carolina League. Peña’s throwing arm is average on pure strength and a shade below on accuracy at this point. It’s enough to merit long-term development on the infield’s left side, where he’s already seeing time at both spots. His speed is more plus than above-average, but his prodigious production on the basepaths reflects the high motor with which he plays.

Peña’s swing has a downward plane that drives a lot of fastballs into the ground at present, putting him both a path tweak and some approach maturation away from realizing a dream of getting to about average power. There are elements of his swing that look like they belong to a less explosive Ronald Acuña Jr., albeit with a different angle of attack. He has some vulnerability to sliders but is great at covering the top of the strike zone, at times with power. This is an exciting infield athlete with the hit tool to support a multi-position regular’s profile on the infield.

At just 20 years old, Quero spent 2023 at Double-A Biloxi and slashed .262/.339/.440, doubled his career home run total with 16 bombs, upped his previously concerning walk rate to 10%, and earned a 40-man roster spot. In the very first game of the 2024 minor league season, he suffered a torn right labrum diving back to first base and missed the whole year. A hamstring injury suffered during 2025 spring training kept Quero from getting underway until just a few days before list publication, when he caught in a complex game.

Gauging how the labrum tear may have impacted Quero’s arm is a key variable as he returns from rehab. He has an ultra-short arm action and was often popping around 1.80 at the end of 2023. Last we saw him, the other aspects of Quero’s defense still needed work. He often gets caught in between wanting to block or backhand pitches in the dirt to his right, and he’s a fairly noisy pitch framer, but overall he’s much more advanced than most catchers his age and he probably would have been fine had the Brewers needed him at some point in 2024 (and his health allowed).

Quero has a power-over-hit offensive profile and will take some hellacious and wild swings. He gets right on top of the plate and is looking to pull. This approach can leave him vulnerable to stuff on the outer edge, which he sometimes struggles to reach, but so far it has worked for him; Quero has never struck out more than 19% of the time at any minor league level. His contact merics from 2023 — an 85% in-zone contact rate, 75% contact overall — would rank near the middle of the primary catching pack across the last couple of seasons, but Quero is still pretty chase-prone. Even with the uptick in walks in 2023, his swing rates (56-57% the last few seasons) have been way up there with the Mario Felicianos, Francisco Mejías and Jorge Alfaros of the world, predecessors whose monster tools have been severely undercut by their voracious approaches. Yainer Diaz had a rock solid 2022 debut with similar rate stats, and Quero is a better defender than him or Mejía (identical rate contact stats), so his floor should be higher. Quero projects as a primary catcher and could exhaust rookie eligibility during the second half of the 2025 season if he’s needed in Milwaukee due to injury. He’s also an interesting potential trade chip due to the presence of William Contreras ahead of him on the depth chart.

Payne was a somewhat surprising first round selection; he was ranked 92nd on the 2024 Draft Board, but was given a nearly $3.5 million to eschew a commitment to Houston. Early returns on Payne have been encouraging. He’s a premier athlete with wide receiver’s build at a strapping 6-foot-2, a plus-plus runner who reaches top speed in just a couple of strides, and Payne has relatively advanced center field acumen and big long-term ceiling as a defender. That gives him a floor of sorts, while Payne’s abilities on offense are much more amorphous and volatile. There are times when he flashes exciting barrel feel; Payne will tuck his hands in and rip through pitches around his hands, or track a breaking ball away from him and slice it the other way. Then there are times when his swing looks totally uncoordinated, or when his hips open so early that he’s exposed on the outer half. Payne’s contact metrics so far in pro ball have been pretty bad, but he’s a teenager who has been given an aggressive assignment even though it was likely he’d be a work-in-progress prospect as a hitter.

This is a prospect of fairly extreme variance, because there’s a real chance Payne’s swing is simply not viable. But we like a good bit of what he’s doing as far as tracking and moving the barrel around, and he has the potential to be a good leadoff man and everyday center fielder if things click.

Letson sort of flew under the radar as a Purdue commit until he cracked 90 mph at Super 60 in his draft year. He signed for nearly half a million dollars in the 11th round as a compelling mix of raw ingredients, and he’s looking absolutely awesome out of the gate as a 20-year-old in High-A. Lanky, whippy and still projectable at 6-foot-4 and with long arms, Letson gets best-in-baseball extension from a low release height. The combination allows both of his runny, low-90s fastball shapes to play up and avoid slug, covering up his raw feel for locating a sharp low-80s slider, and for locating to his arm side in general.

Adding a changeup is vital to countering Letson’s substantial reliever risk, and he flashed a damn good one in his first start of May. But much like his health after a sore elbow has limited him to less than 100 pro innings, the track record there is very light. He’s mopping the floor with older hitters in spite of it, but Letson currently sports a long arm action with some release point inconsistency. Still, he’s already frequently touching 95 mph at the start of the 2025 season, and projecting some command and velo gains off his frame and athleticism is part of the dream here.

The best prospect Milwaukee received as part of the Josh Hader trade with San Diego, Gasser is an athletic, low-slot lefty with an ultra-short arm action and command of four or five different pitches. He was drafted in 2021, and by the end of 2023, he had worked over 130 innings in two consecutive seasons, the second of which came at Triple-A. He made his big league debut in 2024 and made five starts before he blew out. A late-June Tommy John ended his season and will have him out for at least the first half of 2025. As of list publication, Gasser has been throwing bullpens for a couple of weeks, and his rehab timeline has him ball parked for an early September return. Milwaukee’s rotation isn’t exactly deep right now, and his return could have an impact on the playoff race if the Brewers can stay in the thick of it between now and then.

When Gasser is really humming, he’s dotting backdoor breaking balls and attacking hitters’ hands with uphill fastballs and cutters. He has a master’s degree in pitch sequencing and the east/west command to weaponize it. His slider has big, lengthy sweep, and his fastballs and cutters interact with one another in ways that cause a lot of awkward swings. While he doesn’t throw especially hard, his low arm slot gives him some ability to climb the ladder with his fastball to miss bats, but when you’re sitting 92, this approach can make you prone to fly balls and homers. Gasser’s changeup has not developed as we would typically hope or project for such an athletic and loose lefty. When the time comes, it will be important for teams/us to be on the lookout for any alterations in changeup type/style that might have been made during the rehab process. All of Gasser’s good pitches have glove-side action except for the two-seam variant of his fastball, which is vulnerable when it isn’t well-located. If he can add an average changeup to his mix, he’ll be a more complete pitcher.

As he’s currently constituted, Gasser is a no. 4/5 starter type who’ll be very valuable during the regular season thanks to his ability to provide bulk and efficiency.

The lilliputian Lara is a glove-oriented, switch-hitting outfielder who has been on an accelerated promotion pace since 2023, when he skipped the domestic complex and went straight to full season ball. The last couple of years, he’s climbed to Double-A Biloxi while posting an overall offensive performance hovering right around league average, often thanks to his precocious feel for contact, as Lara has never slugged over .400 at any level. In 2024, he slashed .245/.332/.327 and stole 45 bases, which is emblematic of Lara’s talent as a hitter.

This is a plus athlete with a small frame, lacking both present power and long-term power projection for everyday impact. He has some low-ball, ambush pull power but is largely an opposite field hitter from both sides of the dish, and Lara’s groundball rates have hovered around 50% since he left Low-A. He is generally a better contact hitter from that side, though he certainly isn’t hapless as a righty and should continue to improve as he gains experience versus lefties. Lara’s plus speed shines on defense, where he is both instinctive and technically advanced. He’ll snare balls in the gap, and position himself to throw before catching the baseball. He could be a nine-hole-hitting second-division regular who passes muster because of his defense, but ideally Lara is a contending team’s fourth outfielder. His skill set is similar to what Blake Perkins has brought to the team the last couple of years, and to that of former Giants outfielder Andres Torres.

Knoth is an athletic 6-foot-1 righty with a lightning-fast arm. His drop-and-drive delivery is incredibly athletic, his low-90s fastball is seasoned by riding life, and he has a nasty, late-biting 12-to-6 curveball. His size, athleticism, and pitch mix evoke Sonny Gray. Knoth’s breaking ball is the Grim Reaper, an absolute yakker in the 78-80 mph range with huge downward break. He experienced a velocity boost in the spring of 2023 and moved from the early second round of the FanGraphs Draft Board into the first, before being drafted 33rd overall. He had a solid first pro season at Low-A — 21 starts, 84.1 IP, 26.6% K%, 11.1% BB% — then had TJ just before the start of the 2025 campaign.

Knoth doesn’t have prototypical starter’s size, but he’s a superlative on-mound athlete with mechanics that are as repeatable as they are electric. You can go nuts projecting on his changeup and a second breaking ball because of his arm speed and proclivity for spin, respectively. Knoth was also coming out of a cold weather location, and was only 17 on draft day. In 2024, he added a lateral, mid-to-upper-80s breaking ball, but he hasn’t added a changeup yet. He’s a post-TJ breakout candidate for 2026.

After being wooed at the last minute out of a Ball State commitment for a $252,500 bonus in the 15th round in 2023, Adamczewski barely played in his draft year, but has done nothing but hit since. There’s more hit tool risk than a career pro batting average over .320 would suggest, with his contact rate trending under 70% in the opening month of 2025, but Adamczewski’s short levers and explosive hands make him very dangerous against inside pitches, and he has precocious zone judgment to boot. He has lived a charmed existence, with his career BABIP still over .400 after more than 300 professional plate appearances, and A-ball pitching has yet to challenge Adamczewski’s ability to cover velocity up and away from his swing path. But he’s already hovering around 104 mph 90th percentile exit velos at age 20 (as of this week), and he has visually exciting bat speed. This is meaningful power for such a young left-handed hitter, and it feels safe to peg him for nearly average raw right now and above-average in the future, even though Adamczewski has already gotten stronger to the point where he’s less projectable than before.

Adamczewski’s infield defense is badly lagging. His poor hands have piled up errors early on, and he has underwhelming range despite solid average run times as a hitter. There’s a real chance he can’t play the infield at all, and if he can’t stick on the dirt, it puts the onus on his contact rate to improve. There’s enough juice here to be excited about Adamczewski despite these risks and issues. Eric Thames 테임즈‘ sort of offensive production feels like a reasonable expectation for Adamczewski, hopefully with passable second base defense at peak.

Quintana’s profile has shifted pretty rapidly compared to when he signed. His amateur profile was that of a contact-oriented switch-hitting shortstop, one with a higher floor and perhaps lower variance. But in Arizona, he looks more like an exciting power projection infielder who might outgrow shortstop. Quintana is an angular 6-foot-2 or so, and he’s an explosive rotational athlete with plus bat speed. His swing has gorgeous low ball loft, and while there’s risk that Quintana’s lever length and bat path will interact in a way that leaves him vulnerable to good velocity down the line, for now it’s fine to be enthused about his potential for rare lefty infield power. There’s a chance his frame matures in the Goldilocks Zone, where Quintana adds enough strength to have impact power but not so much as to effect his mobility at shortstop. Based on early 2025 looks in Arizona, those chances are remote, and we consider Quintana a likely future third baseman whose overall prospect value is similar to that of a high schooler who goes in the comp or early second round of a draft.

Yoho won a high school state championship as a shortstop and began his college career as an outfielder at Houston. He had TJ as a freshman in 2019, didn’t play in 2020 due to the tail end of his rehab and the pandemic, then transferred to Indiana and had a second TJ in 2021, followed by surgery to repair a dislocated kneecap that winter. He pitched just 37 career college innings during one healthy season in Bloomington. Even though he was about to be a 23, Yoho still had college eligibility left because of all his injuries and the pandemic, and he was committed to transfer to Arkansas for the 2024 season when he was drafted and agreed to sign with Milwaukee for just a $10,000 bonus in 2023. He rocketed through the minors in 2024 and reached Triple-A, striking out 42.4% of opponents and posting a 0.94 ERA across three levels. He didn’t break 2025 camp with the big club but quickly earned a job in the bullpen and made his big league debut the month before list publication. He’ll be up and down this year because his options present the Brewers with needed depth and flexibility, but over time he projects to be a key relief contributor, more than just a generic middle inning type.

Yoho has a four-pitch mix but leans heavily on his screwball-style changeup, which has 15 mph of separation off his 93-ish mph heater. It has ridiculous tailing action that can run off the hip of lefties for looking strikes, or be buried below the zone for whiffs. This changeup is the foundation of the east/west nightmare hitters must reckon with as they face Yoho. His nearly sidearm slot (his forearm and hand turn over super late) creates uphill angle on his tailing fastball, and he’ll mix in 88-90 mph cutters to present a different look. Yoho’s curveball has above-average depth but is only 76 mph or so, and its lack of power makes his ability to locate it (which is mixed) important to its success. All of these pitches have functionality, but they play down a bit due to Yoho’s below-average command. He’s a unique bullpen weapon despite his inefficiency and has one of the weirdest, coolest-looking deliveries in the sport.

Wichrowski wasn’t a prospect-y high schooler and was never elevated past swingman status during his time at Bryant. But he’s improved by leaps and bounds in pro ball, and for a while in 2024, it looked like he might be in the fast lane to the Top 100 prospects list. Wichrowski was touching 100 during 2024 spring training, but as his workload grew, and as he dealt with some arm issues, he backed more into the 93-96 range, where he has been living ever since. The Brewers pushed him quickly (maybe too quickly) to Double-A, where he arrived on a delay to start 2025 due to injury.

Wichrowski’s fastball has riding life with natural cut at times, and off of that he mixes in a bullet-style slider in the upper-80s, an 80-82 mph curveball, and a mid-80s changeup. His late arm stroke is deceptive but also causes a lot of his fastballs to sail on him. Getting that under control will be necessary for him to pitch as a big league starter. He’s improved a lot very quickly and already has four distinct pitches a little over a year after he was drafted as a small school swingman. There are several positive potential outcomes here. One is that Wichrowski’s command clicks and he ends up a no. 4/5 starter. The other is that he regains upper-90s arm strength as a reliever and works in meaningful late-game situations. Though he reached Double-A quickly, we expect Wichrowski’s big league timeline is more in line with the default, putting him on pace for a 2027 debut. That’s about how long he and the Brewers have to find starter-quality strike-throwing.

Meccage was a relatively mature high school prospect with a great breaking ball who ended his pre-draft showcase window sitting 90-93 mph. Then he was more 92-96 and touching 98 during his senior spring, which was a bit surprising given that his thicker build wasn’t overtly projectable. It took late-first round money ($2.5 million) to buy him out of a commitment to Virginia, and Meccage’s velocity has continued to climb. This spring, he has been in the 94-97 mph range more consistently and is touching 98 multiple times in each conservatively manicured, four-inning outing.

The Brewers have fleshed out Meccage’s repertoire and added a second breaking ball. He now has a mid-70s curveball with plus two-plane depth, as well as a pitch that’s more of a slider/cutter in the 82-87 mph range; it tends to live in the top of the strike zone. They’re well-demarcated breakers with plus movement, and they project to plus so long as Meccage’s execution improves a bit. Currently with Low-A Carolina, Meccage is performing well and is on track to debut in 2029. If he can polish his command and develop a pitch with arm-side movement between now and then, he’ll have mid-rotation projection.

You should absolutely buy a ticket to watch Areinamo hit if the opportunity ever arises. He sheds his leg kick with two strikes, but otherwise pulls his knee up to his chest while lifting his hands high over his head before yanking his barrel back down flat on his back. But once this Looney Tunes-style load (it’s Yermín Mercedes‘ swing, basically) is finished, he uncoils his hips concisely enough to flirt with an 80% contact rate despite a chase-happy approach. In spite of how his cut looks, Areinamo is hard to beat with inner-half velocity, and he’s a 21-year-old in High-A flirting with a career .300 average in pro ball.

While Areinamo is a master of the inner half, his chasing extends well beyond that region, and along with middling exit velos, it limits him to mostly doubles power. There’s been some mild progress on the chase front early in 2025, but he’s a range-limited second baseman without a projectable frame, and it puts a lot of pressure on a single standout tool to support a bat-first reserve profile with an unconventional looking operation. Still, he’s producing like a potential regular, and we think Areinamo has a puncher’s chance to be one because of his bat-to-ball acumen.

Crow was drafted by the Angels then later traded to the Mets for Eduardo Escobar during the last gasp of the Ohtani era. The timing of various injuries — elbow inflammation early in 2023 that led to TJ in August of that year — meant that Crow never pitched a game for a Mets affiliate before he was again traded, this time to Milwaukee, for Adrian Houser and Tyrone Taylor. He was back in action for the 2024 Arizona Fall League and broke camp in 2025 with Double-A Biloxi, where Crow looks great.

Crow can spin the baseball with the best of them. His low-90s fastball averages upwards of 2,700 rpm, which is absurd for any fastball, let alone one with below-average velo. All three of his breaking balls routinely exceed 3,000 rpm and have different shapes, and all of them have plus length and bite. Crow will bend great upper-70s curveballs into the zone, and both his slider and cutter lack depth but still move a ton laterally. He’s predictable against lefties and probably needs an arm-side weapon to be a 45 FV starter. But for now, Crow looks healthy and effective, and his fastball plays. He’s a great little athlete who held his stuff for 120 innings in 2022 before the injuries began, and if he can do a version of that again, he’ll be put on the Brewers’ 40-man this offseason and be in the mix for their rotation in 2026.

Hardin, whose grandfather Ronald was the Cubs’ third round pick in 1970, spent his first two collegiate seasons at Daytona State College before transferring to Mississippi State, where he pitched out of the bullpen for two more years. The Brewers raised his arm slot a bit and are attempting to upcycle him as a starter, which looks like it’s going to work. Hardin is hammering the strike zone with a ton of cutters and sliders, and he piled up a 34-to-4 strikeout-to-walk ratio through his first six starts. Though his arm slot has been raised, Hardin’s low-to-the-ground delivery still imparts a decidedly flat approach angle on his fastball, which he’s now locating at the top of the zone rather than the bottom like he was in college. His changeup has been but a bit player in his torrid start. Hardin’s usage bumps to 10% against lefties, but that pitch needs to get better so he has some kind of viable arm-side weapon.

The track record of Hardin throwing strikes at this level is by its nature quite short, and while he’s more athletic than his college delivery ever made him look, his actions are still a little messy, and he might fall over on the mound to the first base side a couple times per season. We’d like to see his lower body get stronger. With one quantum leap already underway, there’s a chance Hardin could become a no. 4/5 starter if his command holds up like this and his changeup progresses. If only one of those things occurs, he’s more of a stock no. 5.

Martinez’s frame, bat speed, and unique background put him on the prospect radar at about the time Eric began writing at FanGraphs full-time. Ernesto’s father played pro ball in Cuba for Holguin and was on a roster that won the Series Nacional in 2022; he eventually relocated to France, where he continued to play for a club called Templiers de Sénart. Ernestito grew up in Cuba and was on the team that won the U-15 World Cup in 2014. He moved to France shortly thereafter to train with his father as part of Pôle France Baseball, and the two played together on Team France during the 2016 WBC qualifier. Junior signed for $800,000 in 2017 and spent a half decade toiling away in A-ball, where he struck out a ton, before improving substantially throughout the last couple of seasons. It was in 2023 that Martinez’s strikeouts started to come down, and for the last couple of years, they’ve continued to trend that way as he has gained exposure to Double- and Triple-A pitching. In 2024, he slashed .284/.365/.466 at Double-A Biloxi and K’d just 16.8% of the time.

Now 25, Martinez is off to another great start at Triple-A Nashville, though whether he will actually be able to hit big league pitching is still an open question. His swing is unique. It features an enormous bat wrap; the tip of Ernesto’s back elbow is actually above his head when his hands load. Go ahead and try to mimic a swing like that, where your back elbow’s apex exceeds the height of your head. It takes a while for Martinez’s bat path to get to a point where it’s on plane with the baseball and he’s more apt to be on time to do damage against secondary pitches. He’s somewhat vulnerable to elevated velocity, though it’s because of his length, rather than a lack of barrel control. Martinez can actually tuck his hands in to square pitches on the inner third and flatten out to cover the top of the zone, he’s just less often on time for the latter. Martinez has been able to limit his strikeouts despite this, but his frequent tardiness makes it tough for him to get to all of his plus raw power. He hits the ball really hard, and so long as his swing isn’t suddenly a profile-crushing problem against big league fastballs, he’s going to produce enough on offense to be a relevant big leaguer, even at first base.

Martinez’s statuesque frame is built for the long haul; this is the sort of player who stays athletic into his 30s. Though his hands on defense aren’t great, Ernesto’s lower body athleticism is nuts. His ability to stretch toward the baseball might be unmatched; this is a 6-foot-6 guy who can do the splits and really throw. Though he might require a period of adjustment, Martinez looks like he’s going to be in the big leagues soon, probably for much of 2026 if Rhys Hoskins‘ $18 million mutual option isn’t exercised. Martinez could have an All-Star peak if he gets to enough of his power.

Durbin was a stellar high school wrestler and baseball player who owns several school records in both sports. He would become a Division III baseball standout at Washington University in St. Louis, where he posted a career OPS over 1.000. Durbin was a Day Three pick of the Braves and coasted through the lower minors during his first 18 months in pro ball. After his first full season, Durbin was traded to the Yankees as part of the Lucas Luetge deal and continued a superlative bat-to-ball track record in the upper minors with New York. He slashed .287/.396/.471 at Triple-A Scranton in 2024 but only played in 90 games during the regular season due to a fractured wrist. Weeks after he was added to the Yankees 40-man roster, he was traded to Milwaukee as part of a package for Devin Williams, and he made his big league debut in April.

Durbin is short — really short, he’s 5-foot-7 — but he’s not small; he’s built like a little tank, or an XS Tyler O’Neill. His compact, stocky build helps keep his swing short and consistently on time to pull the baseball and makes Durbin very difficult to beat inside the strike zone, especially at the top. His quality of contact in 2024 was commensurate with a guy who slugs under .400 at the big league level, but he was dealing with an injury that typically impacts contact quality for a while after recovery, and his spray chart has a pretty extreme airborne pull-side look to it, often a trait of players whose game power outperforms their raw. Here Durbin isn’t projected to do enough damage to be an everyday player. Because he is a capable defender at both second and third base, and has also played all over the outfield, he should be able to play a suitable utility role at lots of non-shortstop positions. Defensive versatility is the key for Durbin to be rostered consistently. He runs well enough that center field could be a long-term piece of his defensive fit (he set a Fall League stolen base record with 29). He’s mostly played third base for the Brewers and should be a solid 1-WAR bat-to-ball utilityman for the next half decade or so.

Boeve was a pre-draft data darling who only struck out nine times as a junior and posted a .512 OBP, albeit against small conference competition in the Summit League. He had a very successful first full season in pro ball, as he was quickly elevated to Double-A Biloxi and slashed .306/.374/.447 in 66 games there before he was shut down with a right labrum injury that would require surgery in the offseason. He began 2025 on a slight delay and stayed back in extended spring training to rehab his shoulder, and he’s only played in a couple games at Biloxi as of list publication, all at DH. In past seasons, Boeve has played a mix of first and third base, with a little second sprinkled in. He does not unanimously pass muster at the hot corner. For some, he is simply a suboptimal fit, while for others he’s a binary “no” due to a lack of range and athleticism. His best position is “hitter.”

Boeve is compact in the box, he tracks pitches well, and he uses the ground to help generate some manner of pop. His 2024 TrackMan data paints what we consider a pretty accurate picture of Boeve’s competencies and blemishes. He had an impressive 44% hard-hit rate that season, but his peak exit velocities were comfortably below average. That’s the data profile of a hitter making lots of solid contact, but one lacking in raw power, a guy who hits .275 or so, albeit with a below average ISO. There have been many more third basemen of consequence who have this offensive profile and play good defense (the David Freese archetype) than there have been 40-grade defenders of this ilk who have prolonged careers. The first base version of Boeve’s production would be akin to Nolan Schanuel’s, or like a Greg Dobbs. That’s a corner role player of modest impact.

Instead of heading to Michigan State, Adams signed for a little less than $300,000 as a 2022 12th rounder and became an exciting lower-level performer in the 18 months that followed. Plus-plus control of the strike zone, good plate coverage, and Adams’ prototypical 6-foot-4 frame made him a notable prospect during that window. In the 18 months since then, however, his power development has plateaued, and developmental experimentation with Adams at third base is waning, as he’s seen many more reps at first base so far in 2025. Adams is a stiffer athlete who plays defense with a high center of gravity, which made some plays tough for him to make at third. He’s clearly still a work in progress at first base, but from that position he’ll more often be able to flip his hips and throw across his body, the type of throw he seems most comfortable with at the hot corner.

As a practically first base-only defender, Adams will need to develop more power than he’s shown the last couple of years. His peak exit velos and hard-hit rate were actually best when he was in rookie ball. Since then, he’s been hovering a shade below the big league average in those areas, and his bat speed is just fair. It isn’t prototypical first base power, but Adams has a great idea of the strike zone and covers a ton of it with an all-fields contact style. It’s not the sort of offensive output you’d expect given his elaborate swing, but this is an OBP and contact-oriented first base prospect without great bat speed. He might be tough to roster due to his lack of defensive utility, but he’s going to do enough on offense to be an above-replacement player. ZiPS likes Adams’ on base ability enough to consider him more of a 45-grade prospect.

A 2021 fourth round pick by Arizona, Patrick was traded to Oakland for Jace Peterson and then later to Milwaukee for Abraham Toro. He’s been a durable, cutter-heavy depth starter type with a five-pitch arsenal headlined by a good cutter, which he mixes with his fastball at the top of the zone. Though he occasionally throws a true slider and changeup, Patrick’s cutter and two different fastballs constitute 90% of his pitch usage. There isn’t a plus secondary pitch here, but Patrick throws a ton of strikes and has held average velocity across 130 innings in the past. He’s a backend starter who has been pressed into regular duty on an injured Brewers pitching staff.

Rodriguez had a breakout 2022 and has spent the last couple of seasons in the upper levels, throwing strikes with modest stuff and holding low-90s velo across just shy of 130 annual innings. He mixes three different breaking balls across a 15-mph velo range, most of them deployed against righties. His ability to locate his slider consistently has enabled it to produce above-average miss at Triple-A even though it’s closer to average in raw quality. This is true for most of Rodriguez’s offerings, including his changeup, which is easily his most-used pitch against lefties and is a solidly above-average offering. Rodriguez is a control-over-command type whose delivery’s cadence (slowly paced early, a flourish of arm stroke at the very end) disrupts hitters’ timing. His ability to mix speeds and locations should make him high-floored backend starter. After debuting with three starts in 2024, C-Rod is in his second option year and is likely to graduate at some point in 2025.

Dinges began his college career at Tallahassee Community College where, during his sophomore year, he developed Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (HLH for short), which is a potentially fatal autoimmune disease where white blood cells are produced in excess and attack tissues and organs rather than an actual invader, like a virus. For weeks, Dinges had a fever of 105 or so and was literally fighting for his life, in and out of different hospitals before he was properly diagnosed and treated by, ironically, a pediatric rheumatologist and professor at the University of Florida. Dinges recovered and transferred to Florida State for his junior year. He had a .998 OPS and more walks than strikeouts in his lone Division-I season, and was drafted in the fourth round.

Dinges’ tools are pretty loud. He’s undersized for a catcher but he’s incredibly twitchy, which is most evident in his max-effort swings and throwing. Dinges’ relatively slender build makes it tough for him to frame pitches quietly, and he needs ball-blocking polish, but he’s so explosive out of his crouch that he frequently pops below 1.9 seconds. Dinges swings with all-out effort and produces impressive power for his size, but he has to wind up his entire body to do so, which creates length and makes it tough for him to keep his head on the baseball. He hasn’t had any strikeout issues yet (on the contrary, he’s K’ing at a 10.3% clip as of list publication), but he might as he faces better arms. He has a little more ceiling than most reserve catching prospects, but also a good bit more risk.

Fenelon was the 22nd ranked player on the 2025 international board; he signed for $1.3 million in January and is set to make his pro debut in the DSL. Scouts who really like Fenelon think he has a shot to be Mike Cameron. He is a six-foot quarter stick of dynamite with emphatic pull power against pitches in the down-and-in portion of the zone. He’s incredibly twitchy and powerful for a hitter his age and size, and he’s also fast enough to have a shot to remain in center field. Where Fenelon’s profile gets sketchy is his hit tool. There were scouts who worried the amount of contact he made during their looks was entirely insufficient. At a muscular 6-feet, there isn’t a ton of physical projection here, either. Fenelon is fun and toolsy, but he’s definitely risky.

Antunez was among the Brewers’ top 2025 international signees, inking a deal for just under $1 million. He is as cut and svelte a player as you’ll see in amateur baseball, a plus athlete with incredible body composition and speed. He’s also an explosive rotator with nearly average raw power right now, at least in BP. We don’t truly know very much about his ability to hit; that’s the key variable of Antunez’s profile as his pro career gets going. But his speed gives him a great shot to develop in center field (he’s a converted infielder) and he already has impressive power. His physical ability leaves room for the possibility that Antunez could eventually be an everyday player, but the risk and variance here is extreme.

Kuehner was a swingman for basically all of his Louisville career, and became a $72,500 senior sign in 2023. He’s been successfully developed as a starter, and had a strong 2024 full-season debut in which he reached Double-A and carried a 3.19 ERA across 104.1 innings. He’s had a bit of a velo spike to start 2025, and the low-slot lefty slinger has been up to 96 while struggling with walks at Biloxi. Kuehner has the kind of deceptive cross-body delivery and low arm slot commonly found in big league bullpens. It aids his stuff in the classic, lefty-dousing way, allowing Kuehner’s slider to be a plus weapon against them. His changeup, the pitch Kuehner commands most readily, has enough fade and tail to act as a bat-misser against righties. There’s a potential starter’s mix here but, historically, Kuehner’s walk rates have lived in the 10-12% range, and since his promotion to Double-A, it’s been more 14-17%. Slider command is most elusive for him, and a lot of them are nowhere near the zone, while some of them are piped. The Brewers and Kuehner have through 2026 (his 40-man platform year) to iron that out so that he can start. More often, funky low-slot guys like this tend to play a valuable big league role as a long reliever.

Currently on the IL with a broken hamate, Black is a data darling who is entertaining as hell to watch play baseball, but his visual scouting report in no way corroborates his underlying data, and for the last 18 months or so, he has been very conservatively ranked at this site due to skepticism around his level of physical ability. Black has a keen eye, he plays with lots of effort, and he swings hard for a small-ish guy. He’s a career .272/.402/.453 hitter in the minors and has had success at the upper levels.

For the last couple of years, Black has been fumbling around for a defensive home. He has largely played second base during the last half decade and gave center field a try in 2022, but he moved to third base in 2023 and even began to get some reps at first. He actually looked pretty good at third aside from his throwing stroke, which sometimes looks odd and lacks accuracy. In his brief 2024 big league debut, Black only played first base, which is where Eric has had him projected for a while.

This is a contact and OBP-driven first base profile without anything approaching typical power for that position. Plus, we have reservations about Black’s ability to carry above-average contact rates to the big leagues. At his size, he requires a ton of effort to swing hard, and his head often flies all over the place. His swing also has a hole in it (up and away) that will be probed by big league fastballs until he proves he can close it. If you buy his statistical performance on its face, then you may be apt to include Black in the 45 FV tier. Unless there’s some measure of defensive versatility added to his game, however, it’s tough to see Black being that caliber of player. Here he’s graded as a lower-impact reserve.

Wilken slashed an amazing .299/.419/.679 during his career at Wake and hit several balls in excess of 115 mph. Questions about his defense and overall athleticism slid him to 31st on the FanGraphs Draft Board in 2023, but Wilken went about where you’d expect a big conference and Cape Cod performer to go at 18th overall. After a great post-draft run, Wilken had a rough 2024. He was hit in the face with a pitch in mid-April and suffered multiple facial fractures that required surgery. It took him a little less than a month to return (he hit with a softball-style cage when he did), but Wilken looked wholly uncomfortable in the box throughout the rest of the season. Things spiraled on him to the point where he was striking out 37% of the time in August and September, and he finished the season hitting .199 at Biloxi and .155 in the Arizona Fall League.

Wilken’s 2025 is off to a better start at the bandbox in Biloxi, which is structured in a way that will likely caricature his pull-oriented power this season. He’s a patient hitter whose swing is geared to pull in the extreme, so much so that Wilken often pulls off sliders away from him that finish on the plate. His contact rate from 2024 (70%) is not all that much worse than what he’s posted in 2025 as of list publication (72%), which is to say that his contact ability will likely settle toward the bottom of an acceptable big league range. Wilken’s measureable raw power with a wood bat in pro ball has been more average than plus. He’s consistently hitting the ball hard, but he doesn’t have titanic high-end pop. This guy crushes middle-middle mistakes and is going to get to power by virtue of his pull-and-lift heavy approach, but he makes concessions against pitches away from him that will limit his contact and overall output.

On defense, Wilken does enough to stay at third base, but he’s a heavy-footed athlete who’s often slow to approach grounders on the grass, yielding too many infield singles on balls hit in front of him. His lack of mobility makes him a below-average defender, but playing third base (and a second position, likely first, which he hasn’t tried yet) is going to be important to his rosterability as a part-time corner role player, which is his projection here.

The parameters here are quite clearly set. Burke is a beefy boy with 70-grade all-fields juice and he’s anchored to first base with bottom-of-the-scale mobility. The Brewers gave the Tennessee product $2.1 million at the end of the comp round on the premise that he’ll mash enough to render his limitations irrelevant, and if you watch him on a day when Burke hits the ball 117 mph, such a perspective becomes understandable.

With that level of pop, Burke doesn’t need to sell out to pull and he doesn’t, but there are other issues keeping him from getting to all his power. There is far less in-zone whiffing that Burke’s frame might suggest, and he’s only struck out about 20% of the time early on this year in High-A. He’s fairly fluid dropping the barrel and extending his arms to produce hard (albeit low-lying) contact to the opposite field. But despite showing some progress in cutting his chase (though less so against lefties), Burke is still piling up grounders at a clip well above 50%. He digs in the box with an upright posture, shows little ability to bend and scoop pitches on the lower third, and provides pitchers an avenue to avoid the worst consequences of his top-of-the-scale power.

Burke’s lack of athleticism dulls our confidence in a swing tweak unlocking more loft, even with stratospheric, star-level lefty pop on the other side of the gorge. He’s going to be a useful mid-order cog, but probably not a star when compared to his first base peers.

However big of a person a 19-year-old listed at 6-foot-4, 218-pounds conjures in your mind, think bigger with Bitonti. The LA-area native has stayed commendably fit since signing for $1.75 million in the third round of the 2023 draft, but he has tumbled down the defensive spectrum (he has been a SS/3B/RF in the past) and has played first base almost exclusively so far in 2025. Bitonti has massive power potential that he’s still growing into, but his need to slug his way into viability is only increasing with time. Exceptionally long-levered, Bitonti’s hard contact comes when he can extend his arms, and Low-A pitchers are regularly sneaking pedestrian velocity by him underneath his hands, keeping his contact rate south of 70% in full-season ball. Bitonti is admirably patient, especially for a young hitter, but he’s struggling to track same-handed breaking balls in a way that portends future platoon issues. He’s young enough and has enough raw power to transcend these mounting shortcomings, but at this rate, he’ll need to get to all of it.

Anderson is a very muscular teenage outfield prospect who slugged .512 and hit eight homers in just 46 DSL games in 2024. He made a case to break camp with the Low-A group during a hot 2025 spring training, but ultimately was left back in Arizona for extended and the start of the ACL season. That has looked like the correct decision as, even against complex-level arms, Anderson is struggling to stay on time enough to make consistent contact. He’s a long-term dev sleeper with big power projection, but there’s also big risk that the bottom falls out of his profile if he ends up a corner outfielder with a 28%-ish strikeout rate.

Few pitchers look smoother or more athletic than Rodriguez when he’s dipping into his back leg, but things get a little choppier once he gets his arm cocked. His drop-and-drive delivery produces upper-90s heat from a low release height, but he currently has shotgun spray command alongside a significant head whack. Rodriguez’s actual fastball shape is pedestrian, but his 88-91 slider has devilish two-plane break and could carry his profile to eighth inning work at maturity. Rodriguez’s command will need to improve by a full grade for that to be realistic, but the athleticism fuels our optimism for that growth taking place. He’s Rule 5 eligible this winter, and a strikeout rate north of 36.1% in the early going makes him enticing even if he’s still quite raw.

Baseball is better when there’s a healthy supply of wacky, over-the-top arm slot guys hanging around, and Birchard seems primed to be part of the next wave. He had a bit of a breakout in 2024, as he was sitting 93-94 with 20 inches of vertical movement and a plus breaking ball. This season, his velo has backed up into the low 90s while working as a starter, but Birchard has added an 88-91 mph cutter to his already impressive collection of breaking pitches. His slider has plus lateral action on paper but, functionally, it’s at its best when it has vertical drop. Birchard’s overhand curveball plays nicely off his heater and has 16 inches of drop. That’s four pitches with distinct movement, and Birchard’s curve has enough arm-side tilt to play as a weapon against lefties. There is very little health or performance track record here, and deliveries like Birchard’s almost always reside in the bullpen, but it’s worth trying to develop him as a starter because the pitch mix to succeed in that role is clearly here. More likely, Birchard will be a competent long reliever.

An undrafted free agent out of a Division-III school, Hostetler looked like a potential 2025 pop-up arm, but he got hurt in just his second regular season outing. In the Brewers’ Spring Breakout game, he was pumping 97-98 mph fastballs and flashed a plus changeup, while in his regular season starts, Hostetler was sitting more 92-96 with erratic mechanics and an imbalanced lower half. Though he’s working with a ton of different pitches already, Hostetler’s breaking balls are rather pedestrian and his changeup is the weapon with the most overt bat-missing potential. Given that his command is so comfortably below average right now, here Hostetler projects as a fastball/changeup reliever.

Collins was a minor league Rule 5 pick in 2022 and has spent the last couple of years posting a 130 wRC+ in the upper levels of the Brewers system. He broke camp with the big league team and is playing a modest part-time role as a switch-hitting left fielder who sometimes moonlights at second and third base, though he’s not a good infield defender. Collins is a compact, 5-foot-8 guy with great control of the strike zone and slightly above-average bat-to-ball acumen. He has some low-ball, pull-side ambush power, but it’s not the kind of power typical of a left fielder. Without true defensive versatility, Collins is more of a nice bench bat due to his ability to take a good at-bat and put the ball in play from either side of the dish.

There was a point when Thomas looked like a lock to be a backend starter, but the Cardinals moved him to the bullpen in 2024. He worked 90.1 total innings in 56 appearances at Triple-A Memphis and became Milwaukee’s Rule 5 draft pick. He made the team and pitched in two long relief appearances early in the season before hitting the IL with elbow arthritis, for which he received an anti-inflammatory injection in late April.

Thomas throws both a sinker and four-seamer that sit between 88-91 mph. Neither has plus movement or life, so Thomas fully depends on his impressive command to stop them from getting hammered. His plus-spinning slider, his most-used offering, has above-average length and two-plane shape in the 80-84 mph range. Thomas has robotically consistent command of it, and uses it to get looking strikes and as a chase pitch. His cutter also has sharp action and crowds the hands of righty batters. He also throws his changeup to righties, but too often that pitch either cuts or sails on him. Thomas has the look of a high-floored no. 6-8 starter, but he appears slated to play a bulk relief role in his first season with Milwaukee.

Di Turi’s polished actions, reliable hands and certainly his throwing arm provide the foundation for a utility profile that should see him capably man every spot on the infield dirt. The 19-year-old switch-hitter is patient to the point of being passive, but his feel for the zone has allowed him to avoid problematic K-rates and establishes a low bar for his contact skills to clear. Right now, his best swings have him uncoiling his short levers and dropping the barrel low-and-in on both sides of the plate, leaving a significant hole for upper-third heaters and sliding his contact rate below 70% in A-ball. He looks like he needs a bat path adjustment to make enough contact to reach a utility future.

Garcia’s power-and-athleticism-fronted utility profile has gotten two significant nudges to start 2025. The first is that the Brewers have him splitting time between shortstop and center field, an understandable measure given that they have a zillion intriguing middle infielders in A-ball, and Garcia’s hit tool limitations will require him to check a lot of defensive boxes to crack a 40-man roster. His work in the outfield looks like something he’s only been doing for a few months, but he’s shown glimpses of comfort and competence on balls hit directly over his head. He’s on track to be viable in center field (though probably not fast enough to be impactful) and above-average in the corners. On the infield, aside from the occasional errant throw, Garcia remains an above-average shortstop glove.

The second nudge is Garcia ditching a leg kick in favor of a toe tap where he uses his front foot movement to keep his stance closed for longer. The tweak has him looking less rotational, allowing him stay on sliders in-zone more, and has dragged his strikeout rate south of 30% for the first time in too long. Garcia’s swing is still too grooved for him to make a meaningful amount of contact, but he’s doing better in that regard. This is still a glove-first profile.

Hunt struggled to find a consistent role during his four seasons at Mississippi State. He was selected by the Pirates after his junior year but chose not to sign, then he really struggled as a senior and went undrafted. He pitched pretty well on Cape Cod that summer and signed with Milwaukee as a undrafted free agent. Hunt had a breakout first full season as a pro, during which he climbed to Double-A and was top five in the minors in K%, WHIP and ERA among pitchers with at least 100 innings. He’s had a bit of a velo dip at Biloxi to start 2025 and is only sitting 90-91 mph. Hunt’s mid-80s slider is his best pitch and has big vertical depth for an offering that bends in at 85 mph. It’s a chase pitch versus righties and a strike-getter against lefties. Hunt can dial things down and throw more of a curveball at 77-79 mph, and his changeup has tailing action, but it lacks sink. It’s the four-pitch mix of a deceptive spot starter.

Wood is an undersized, contact-hitting catcher whose ceiling is in the Garrett Stubbs area. His compact lefty stroke generates a ton of soft, all-fields contact. Though Wood’s bat-to-ball metrics have slowly been trending down since 2023, they’re still above the big league average (a 7% swinging strike rate and 84% in-zone contact rate so far in 2025), which is meaningful for a catcher. Wood has improved as a defender and is likely to be a viable catcher. He’s a below-average receiver and ball-blocker, but 40-grade skills in those areas are improvements compared to when Wood was drafted, and he’s on a trajectory to be a nearly average defender. His pop times have also come down and are more often hovering in the 1.95 area, but he’s had trouble controlling the run game for his entire career. Without the plus glove of a typical backup, Wood is looking more like a 40-man roster’s third catcher.

Alastre is a precocious contact hitter who mostly played shortstop during his 2023 and 2024 rookie ball seasons. The Brewers are so stocked with middle infielders at Low-A Carolina to start 2025 that Alastre began playing left field more often, and he was quickly promoted to Wisconsin after 17 games of hitting .311/.391/.508 in order to clear a sort of log jam. Alastre might be an outfield-only prospect, as he is not an especially accurate infield thrower. He’s slight of frame and likely doesn’t have the long-term power projection of a left field-only contributor, so it’s important that he keeps playing some combination of second and third in addition to his relatively new commitment to the outfield.

Alastre’s contact ability will need to carry him to a big league job. He has great timing and barrel accuracy from both sides of the plate, even though he uses a pretty big leg kick and stride (which he cuts with two strikes). He’s best at covering the top of the zone and has some potentially looming vulnerability to secondary pitches, which we’ll maybe learn more about throughout 2025 now that he’s been promoted to High-A. Though he’s been promoted out ahead of the loaded A-ball roster, this isn’t someone we see in the express lane to the bigs. Alastre is still more of a hit tool flier type who needs to find a defensive home or three to be rostered.

Acosta was ranked 48th on the 2025 international amateur board and signed for $1.1 million in January. He’s a good little athlete who requires a lot of effort to swing hard. Even as he became stronger during the commitment window and his swing has become better connected, his head still whips around when he takes a bigger hack; it might speak to issues against pro quality stuff. Acosta doesn’t have monster tools on either side of the ball. He’s well-rounded and athletic but not especially explosive, and he has a realistic utility fit.