Brewers’ Prospects Rate Highly, But When Will They Play?

×

Expand

Photo via Robert Gasser - Instagram

Robert Gasser

Robert Gasser

It’s prospect ranking season and, if early lists are any indication, the Brewers are going to be well represented in that conversation. It remains to be seen, however, when Brewers fans might see all of this player development success translate to the big league level.

MLB Pipeline will release their updated list of the game’s top 100 prospects this week and they’ve been building up to it by unveiling top 10 lists by position. The Brewers have been one of the most frequently mentioned teams in that process, with Jeferson Quero ranked third among the game’s top catchers, Jacob Misiorowski fifth among the top right-handed pitchers and Robert Gasser ninth among left-handed pitchers. The Brewers are already one of just four teams to have at least three players mentioned, and they’ll almost certainly have more this week: The outfield and third base lists have yet to be released but barring a mistake the former will include Jackson Chourio and the latter could include Tyler Black and possibly 2023 top draft pick Brock Wilken.

Back in December Sam Dykstra of MLB Pipeline identified the Brewers as one of the six most improved farm systems in 2023, and that will almost certainly be reflected when farm system rankings come out in the weeks ahead. The question remains, however, when those players will transition from being high potential prospects to major league contributors. Chourio, Quero, Misiorowski, Black, Gasser and Wilken all played at or above the AA level in 2023, but none are locks to be in a Brewers uniform to start the 2024 season.

Jackson Chourio

The Brewers have several prospects among the game’s best at their respective positions, but Chourio stands out among even that group. He’s multiple years younger than anyone else we’ll discuss here and is a career .286 hitter with a .347 on-base and .490 slugging in the minor leagues, including 122 games at AA in 2023. He played winter ball in his native Venezuela this offseason and was more than nine years younger than the average player but still hit .379/.453/.530 in 17 games. While there he went head-to-head in a home run derby against defending National League MVP Ronald Acuna Jr. and only lost by one.

The eight-year contract Chourio signed this offseason removes one consideration from decisions on when to promote him going forward: His service time and contract situation won’t change if the Brewers decide to promote him early. He’s still a center fielder, however, and the Brewers are flush with talent in the outfield. Chourio will be the most closely watched player in spring training this year, and how he handles that scrutiny might help determine what happens next for him.

Jeferson Quero

The second youngest among the Brewers’ group of top prospects, Quero only turned 21 in October but has already racked up an impressive list of accolades. He spent the entire 2023 season with AA Biloxi and batted .262 with a .339 on-base and .441 slugging in 90 games but may have contributed even more value on defense. Quero was selected for MiLB’s Gold Glove Award at catcher, making him the top defensive backstop in all of minor league baseball. MLB Pipeline said “Quero's defense is so good that it alone virtually guarantees him a long career as at least a backup.”

Quero’s path to playing time in the majors, however, is somewhat murky. He shares a position with William Contreras, the Brewers’ most valuable position player from a year ago and an improved defender in his own right. Contreras has the bat to play elsewhere in the lineup or DH but he’s easily the most valuable as a catcher. Having too many high-upside catchers is a good problem to have, but Quero’s path to regular playing time at the MLB level has some hurdles that others will not face.

Brock Wilken

The #18 overall pick in the 2023 draft, Wilken was seen as one of the most advanced hitters available and quickly showed a combination of plate discipline and power in his professional debut season. Wilken played 47 games across three pro levels in 2023 and batted .285 with a .414 on-base and .473 slugging, collecting 17 extra base hits and drawing 33 walks in 203 plate appearances. 

Wilken has the least upper-level experience of anyone on this list, having played just six games in AA. He might also get an earlier look in the majors, however, because he could fill a position of need. While Wilken has shown the capacity to play third base in the minors, he might be a long term fit at first, and the Brewers don’t have a clear incumbent candidate there. If they struggle to find production at that position and Wilken continues to show promise in the minors, then the pressure will start to build to give him a shot.

Jacob Misiorowski

The #63 overall pick in the 2022 draft, Misiorowski’s blazing fastball led to a meteoric rise in his first full professional season. He started the year at low-A Carolina but was promoted after just nine outings there, then made just six appearances for high-A Wisconsin before getting the call to AA. Across three levels last season he posted a 3.41 ERA and struck out almost 14 batters per nine innings. 

While there’s no question Misiorowski’s stuff will play at the MLB level, he has not yet been asked to take on the workload even a limited MLB starter will face. He made 20 starts in 2023 but pitched just 71 1/3 innings. At some point the Brewers will have to make an interesting decision with Misiorowski: Do they want to see him at the big leagues sooner in a limited role (as they did with Josh Hader, for example), or do they want to keep him on a regular and more structured schedule and continue to build him up as a starter?

Tyler Black

A competitive balance round selection between the first and second rounds of the 2021 draft, Black has had no trouble adapting from life at a smaller college (he played for Wright State in the Horizon League) to hitting at the professional level. He has an impressive combination of power and patience at the plate and in 2023 he added another element, stealing 55 bases in 67 attempts between the AA and AAA level. As we noted two weeks ago, projection models have seen enough to anoint Black as the Brewers’ best option at third base right now.

That position, however, has been a bit of an open question for Black. The Brewers initially played him primarily at second base as a professional before opting to try him in center field and didn’t get him much playing time at third until the 2023 season. Baseball America described him as “an offensive-oriented player in search of a defensive home.” If he can play the position the Brewers might have a home for him at third base, but he’s had limited opportunities to prove he can stick there.

Robert Gasser

A few picks after the Brewers selected Black in 2021 the Pirates took lefty pitcher Robert Gasser, and the two later became teammates when the Brewers acquired Gasser in the 2022 Josh Hader trade. Gasser has been at Nashville for almost all of the time since, making his final five starts there in 2022 and spending the entire season there in 2023. Gasser has a 3.90 career ERA in 161 2/3 innings at the AAA level (where the league ERA was over 5 in 2023) and has struck out eleven batters per nine innings.

Like Black, the early projection models for 2024 suggest that Gasser is one of the Brewers’ best options right now. In a rotation with question marks behind Corbin Burnes, Freddy Peralta and Wade Miley, it would seem like Gasser should have an opportunity to pitch at the MLB level in 2024. There were also open spots in the rotation at times in 2023, however, and the Brewers looked elsewhere instead of opening the door for him. Gasser will turn 25 in May, so he’s still relatively young but older than everyone else on this list. He’s experienced success at every level in multiple organizations, it just remains to be seen when he’ll get a chance to try to translate that to MLB success.