Where Will the Brewers' Top Prospects Play in 2024?

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Photo via Jeferson Quero - Instagram

Jeferson Quero

Jeferson Quero

The 2024 Minor League Baseball season won’t get into full swing until later this week, but the Brewers’ loaded farm system is already paying dividends. 

The Brewers were widely regarded as having one of the best collections of prospects in the sport before offseason moves brought even more young talent into the organization as they traded Corbin Burnes, Adrian Houser, Tyrone Taylor and Mark Canha for even more young talent. This spring Keith Law of The Athletic ranked their farm system second in all of baseball and MLB Pipeline has them third. 

As we noted three weeks ago, the Brewers’ farm system should be particularly exciting because so many of the organization’s top players are close to being ready to contribute at the MLB level. Both Law and MLB Pipeline, however, worked to draw attention to more than just the imminent big leaguers. “Their system has a little of everything right now—a couple of potential superstars, some high-end pitching, some teenagers in the low minors who look like upside play —and could look very different in either direction based on how their 2023 draft class, which looked outstanding on paper, shows up in its first full season,” Law said in his rankings. 

Three regulars on top prospect lists this spring have already made impacts in the majors for the Brewers in their opening series: Jackson Chourio collected five hits across three games in the Mets series, Joey Ortiz also played in all three games and Oliver Dunn collected a hit in his MLB debut on Saturday. Many of the others made their season debuts on Friday when AAA Nashville started their season or will debut this Friday when AA Biloxi and A-level Wisconsin and Carolina open play. 

Here’s a consensus look at the Brewers’ top 10 prospects, averaging rankings from five professional publications: Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs, Keith Law of The Athletic, Baseball Prospectus, Baseball America and MLB Pipeline. 

1. Jackson Chourio, outfielder, 720 of a possible 720 points

Chourio isn’t just the consensus #1 prospect in the Brewers’ organization, he’s also a consensus top five prospect in the game of baseball and the owner of the largest contract ever awarded to a player who had yet to make his MLB debut. Despite the fact that he’s only 20 years old, minor league fans and scouts have been following Chourio for a long time: He was already the #10 prospect in these consensus rankings two years ago, before he had ever appeared in a professional game on US soil. Chourio justified that excitement that season by batting .288 with a .342 on-base and .538 slugging across three levels while being three, four and six years younger than his average opponent on those teams. Historic precedent would suggest he’ll experience some growing pains at some point, but it hasn’t happened yet. He’s only the second consensus #1 Brewers prospect since I started compiling these lists in 2017 (Brice Turang was the other, in 2020).

2. Jeferson Quero, catcher, 704 points

After Chourio there is some debate about who’s next. Keith Law and Baseball Prospectus have Quero #2 but the other three lists have him at #3. Either way, he might be the most hyped Brewers catching prospect since B.J. Surhoff rose through the organization as the #1 overall pick in the 1985 draft. Quero is a rare combination of offense and defense at a premium defensive position: He’s a career .278 hitter with a .350 on-base and .445 slugging in the minors and he’s also won a Minor League Gold Glove Award.

Quero opened the season at AAA and would be a clear candidate to take over at the MLB level if something happened to William Contreras, but plans for his future are on temporary hold after he appeared to injure his shoulder diving back into first base after drawing a walk in his first plate appearance of the season on Friday night. He sat out the rest of the weekend series. 

3. Jacob Misiorowski, right-handed pitcher, 698 points

Misiorowski was the #2 pick in FanGraphs, Baseball America and MLB Pipeline’s rankings but fell to #3 on the consensus list because not everyone is sold on him: While everyone had Quero either 2 or 3, Baseball Prospectus had Misiorowski fourth, and Keith Law had him sixth. Of the highly ranked players he’s probably the furthest away from reaching his full potential. He’s struck out almost 14 batters per nine across his first two professional seasons but logged just 71 1/3 innings across 20 highly structured appearances in 2023 as the Brewers built him up very slowly. 

He throws extremely hard, and his arsenal almost certainly could play in an MLB bullpen almost immediately (there was speculation the Brewers considered bringing him up to do that already last year) but putting Misiorowski in that role limits the chance that he could reach his best case scenario as an ace starting pitcher. He’ll likely be on the AA Biloxi roster again when it’s released this week, as he pitched just five games there after a late promotion in 2023.

4. Tyler Black, infielder, 682 points

Across three seasons in the Horizon League with Wright State, five minor league levels and the prospect-laden Arizona Fall League, 23-year-old infielder Tyler Black has never not hit. He’s shown speed, power and plate discipline, stealing 55 bases while hitting 18 home runs and posting a .417 on-base percentage in 2023. The only question with Black is how the Brewers will find a way to get that bat in their lineup.

Across 215 minor league games the Brewers have tried Black at third base (103 games, his most frequent spot), second base, first base and even center field. He came into this spring as a projected candidate to win the Opening Day spot at third, but it didn’t happen. Black is off to another hot start at the plate with AAA Nashville, but all three of his games in their opening series came as a designated hitter.

5. Brock Wilken, third baseman, 666 points

Wilken might be the biggest name Keith Law was talking about in the quote above about how top players from the 2023 draft will impact the Brewers’ prospect rankings going forward. Wilken was the Brewers’ top pick in that draft, #18 overall, after a college season where he hit 31 home runs in just 66 games for Wake Forest. After just seven games in rookie ball the Brewers sent Wilken all the way up to High-A Wisconsin, where he continued to hold his own against older pitchers with a .289 average, .427 on-base and .438 slugging.

Physically Wilken looks more like a first baseman than a third baseman, but at this point everything he’s done defensively suggests he can stick at the tougher and more valuable defensive spot for now. A hitter with significant power and plate discipline who can play third base would be a tremendously valuable asset, and there have been years over the last few decades where a player with Wilken’s profile would have been a clear choice to be the Brewers’ top prospect. The Brewers took a long look at Wilken in Cactus League games this spring and his skill set played up in that environment, as he hit .412 with a home run and reached base in almost 60% of his plate appearances. He appears likely to rejoin Biloxi to open the 2024 season after getting a brief stint there at the end of 2023.  

Rounding out the top 10 in the consensus rankings:

6. Robert Gasser, left-handed pitcher, 662 points (opened the season on the injured list

7. Luis Lara, outfielder, 650 points (likely to return to High-A Wisconsin)

8. Joey Ortiz, infielder, 648 points (opened the season with the Brewers)

9. Carlos Rodriguez, pitcher, 624 points (opened the season with AAA Nashville)

10. Josh Knoth, pitcher, 624 points (making his pro debut, may wait for short-season rookie ball)